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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 




Flag of Switzerland. 



THE PLAN BOOK SERIES 



A LITTLE JOURNEY 



TO 



SWITZERLAND 



FOR INTERMEDIATE AND UPPER GRADES 



EDITED BY 



MARIAN M. GEORGE 



CHICAGO 
A. FLANAGAN COMPANY 



THE LIBRARY OF 
CONGRESS, 

Two Copies Received 

JUL. 3 1902 

(\CoPYKKJHT ENTRY 

iCLASSlSyXXc. No. 

3 I f M- fc> 
COPY B. 



Copyright, 1902, 
by 
FLANAGAN COMPANY 



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o- 



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X 



A Little Journey to 
Switzerland. 



Did you ever hear of the "Play Ground of Europe?" 
But there is one, a very delightful one, and to its 
charming lakes and glorious mountains many thou- 
sands of wearied people go every year, for rest and 
recreation. 

This playground is about one-third as large as 
the State of New York. Its name is Switzerland. It 
is one of the smallest and most mountainous countries 
of Europe. Many of its square miles stand on end 
in the form of mountains and glaciers. It boasts 
of the highest ranges of the Alps, some of the peaks 
being almost three miles high. Many of these lofty 
peaks are covered with snow, winter and summer. 

Nearly two-thirds of Switzerland consists of lakes 
and mountains, which leave little room for large 
ranches and farms. The farms are so very small that 
we could almost fold them up and put them in our 
pockets. Only one-ninth of the land is tilled, and 
there is a population of 3,119,635 to be fed. 

Then, again, the Swiss have no sea-coast, which 
hampers their trade across the ocean ; their summer 
seasons are short, and crops often fail to ripen as they 
should. Avalanches and storms at times tear down 
almost as fast as the people can build. 

What do the people do? Mountains and glaciers 
are all very well to look at, but they do not yield crops. 



4 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO SWITZERLAND. 

The Swiss must have great difficulty in earning their 
bread; clearly they have no time to play. Yet the 
Swiss are the most prosperous people of Europe. They 
all make a good living and there are no beggars. 

I will tell you how they manage. They make money 
by entertaining their visitors from other parts of 
Europe. This is one of their leading occupations. 
They make money out of their lakes and mountains 
and glaciers. 

They build splendid hotels in every mountain nook, 
on every shore of their blue lakes, and invite the whole 
world to come and look at their scenery. 

There are over 1400 of these hotels, not counting 
the boarding houses and cafes. 

During the long winter days and evenings many are 
employed in making souvenirs to sell to tourists, and 
in preparing to act as guides for parties who wish to 
climb the mountains during the summer. 

In May the visitors begin to come, and they con- 
tinue to come by thousands until October, when 
the cold weather drives them away. The Swiss people 
are glad to see them come, and sorry to have them 
go, for from these visitors they reap a harvest of $20,- 
000,000 every year. 

As the farmers raise barely enough on their small 
farms for their own use, food supplies have to be im- 
ported. Austria and Germany send beef. Germany, 
France and Italy send vegetables, and the United 
States sends wheat for bread. 

In exchange for these food products the Swiss send 
the other countries watches, clocks, machinery, carved 
wooden and ivory articles, lace, embroidery, braided 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO SWITZERLAND. O 

straw, chamois skin, cigars, cheese, and condensed 
milk. 

Manufacturing is an important industry. They im- 
port raw silk from Italy, raw cotton from the United 
States, and flax and hemp from the low countries of 
Europe, and make silk, cotton and woolen goods to 
sell to the world. They make their mountain streams 
work for them, using the power furnished by their 
swift-flowing waters. Dairying is also a leading oc- 
cupation. "Alp" means pasture. On their mountain 
pastures thousands of cows, sheep, and goats feed. 
Swiss cheese and condensed milk sell all over the 
world. 

But the manufacturers of Switzerland are not what 
we are most interested in. There is something we are 
far more anxious to see — the Alps — those great snow- 
covered mountains piled high toward the sky. We see 
them even now in our mind's eye; their precipices, 
their dark abysses, their ice rivers and seas, their 
white peaks shining above the clouds. 

The Alps slope generally east or west from the 
St. Gothard group, which forms the chief water-shed 
of Switzerland. A water-shed is a high point of land 
from which water drains in opposite directions. 

From the St. Gothard, two irregular ranges slope 
westward, one on either side of the River Rhone. 
Their glaciers for the most part drain into the Rhone. 
Monte Blanc, Monte Rosa, the Matterhorn, the Jung- 
frau and other well known peaks belong to these 
ranges. 

Eastward from the St. Gothard slope the ranges 
which send their glacier streams into the Rhine. The 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO SWITZERLAND. 




HERDSMAN. 



Alps have many peaks above the line of perpetual 
snow. Monte Blanc, whose top is 15,871 feet above 
sea level, is the highest peak in Europe. 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO SWITZERLAND. 7 

These Swiss Alps do a very big business furnishing 
rivers for Europe. Not only the Rhine and Rhone, 
but even the Danube and the Po (through their tribu- 
taries) receive water from the glaciers of the Alps. 

The Rhine flows northward, through Lake Con- 
stance, and forms part of the northern boundary of 
Switzerland. The Rhone flows westward through the 
Lake of Geneva. It has the. widest valley of all Swiss 
rivers, and is surrounded by the highest mountains. 
These rivers and their tributaries have fertile valleys, 
where we shall see lakes, cities, tourist resorts, and the 
Tittle pocket editions of farms. 

LANGUAGE AND RELIGION. 

There is no Swiss language. In the east, middle 
and north of the country, the people speak German. 
Of the twenty-two cgjitons (or little states), into 
-^ which Switzerland is divided, fifteen are German-speak- 
ing, five are French, one is Italian, and in one an 
ancient language called Romansch is the chief tongue 
§poken. These divisions are not exact. In some can- 
tons part of the people speak one language, part an- 
other. Many Swiss speak two or more languages from 
childhood. There are so many English-speaking trav- 
elers that English is taught in the public schools ; so 
we have no difficulty in making ourselves understood. 

A little over half the population is Protestant. 
We find Zurich, Basel, Geneva, Berne, and their 
surrounding districts Protestant. The mountain re- 
gions are Catholic. People may believe any creed 
they choose, but the government has forbidden the 
founding of new convents. 



8 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO SWITZERLAND, 
WE ARRIVE AT BASEL. 



Of the many railroads leading into Switzerland from 
Germany and France, by far the greater number lead 
to Basel. It is situated on the River Rhine in the 
northwestern corner of Switzerland. In searching our 
map, we shall have to look at several northwestern 




VIEW OF KASEL 



corners before we find the right one, owing to the 
crooked boundary line. 

Some one has said that Basel controls the gate money 
of Switzerland. That means that most tourists enter 
Switzerland at this point. 

We arrive at this old, old town on a fine summer 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO SWITZERLAND. 9 

day. There are no Alps around Basel. The low range 
of the Jura on one side, the hills of the Black Forest 
on the other, are all the landscape can do for us. But 
the town itself is a quaint old-world city which we 
long to explore. 

The Three Kings is said to be the oldest hostelry 
(hotel) in Europe. Let us go there. It faces the 
Rhine and has a view from the windows which is both 
novel and full of interest. As soon as possible we set 
out to see the sights. It is easy to tell that we are 
in a Swiss town, for there are numbers of guides with 
mountain dress and Tyrolese hats decorated with green 
sprigs, ready for us. 

We pass parties of tourists starting to or returning 
from the mountains with knapsacks, alpenstocks and 
hob-nailed shoes. 

Through narrow streets, past old houses we go, 
hearing a murmur of German on all sides. The strange 
shops and foreign faces and languages delight us. We go 
to the cathedral terrace to see the landscape around 
the town. Basel seems encircled by vineyards. They 
lie basking in the sun all along the slopes of the Rhine. 

Resting under the great chestnut trees of the ter- 
race, our eyes sweep in a wide circuit over gardens, 
orchards, villas, and cottage-dotted hills. It seems a 
prosperous region. 

Basel is the second largest city in Switzerland, hav- 
ing a population of 112,842. Its railroads, banks, and 
manufactories have made it one of the richest cities 
of its size in the world. Here are made silk ribbons 
and aniline dyes. We must buy some of the ribbons. 
The weaving is done in factories, although hand 



10 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO SWITZERLAND. 

looms in the homes are still used to some extent. 
Power factories are of recent date in Switzerland. 

As we leave the terrace, we turn to look at the 
cathedral. It adds a fine bit of color to the town, being 
built of red sandstone, with roof of bright colored tiles. 

Its outer walls are decorated with curious figures of 
saints carved in stone and wood. It took more than 
three hundred years to build this cathedral. 

In the old days, when Basel was under Catholic rule, 
the inner walls were splendid with paintings and 
images. Then came the religious wars, called the 
Reformation, and Basel turned Protestant. So did all 
the large Swiss cities. The people tore the images and 
paintings from their cathedrals. In many cases they 
even whitewashed the frescoed walls. This made the 
interiors more Protestant, but much less interesting. 

In this cathedral, built in the fourteenth century, 
a religious council was once held long ago. It must 
have been a dull, stupid council, for the people of 
Basel grew tired of it. They turned all their clocks 
ahead one hour, hoping that the churchmen would 
stop debating so much the earlier each day. But the 
council kept on just the same as ever, while the 
people of Basel had to fly around pretty lively to keep 
up with their clocks. 

The houses have picturesque overhanging roofs, 
odd chimneys, and very old and curious gables and 
turrets. Some of these ancient houses have signs and 
mottoes over their high, pointed, arched entrances. 
The mottoes were written in a pious spirit, no doubt, 
but such is not always their effect. Here is one that 
was once over an old inn: 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO SWITZERLAND. 11 

"In God I build my hopes of grace, 
The Ancient Pig's my dwelling-place. 7 ' 

The Ancient Pig was the name of the inn. Basel 
has been called the Golden Gate of Switzerland, but 
there must have been a time when it was not so easy 
to enter the town. Three of the great stone gateways 




SWISS INN. 



remainj a part of its ancient fortifications. They hint 
of wars, with terrible assaults by many a foe. 

Hiring a carriage, we drive through the parks; the 
Pfalz (or esplanade) ; the Zoological Garden, the only 
one in Switzerland; and to the University buildings 
and numerous scientific schools. The University is one 
of Switzerland's six famous Universities. The others 
are at Zurich, Geneva, Berne, Lausanne, and Fribourg. 

We ride over the macadamized roads about the city 
and see the pretty villas peeping from masses of foliage. 



12 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO SWITZERLAND. 

These villas are the homes of the wealthy people of 
Basel. 

CHALETS. 

We see picturesque little cottages, or chalets, that 
look like little toy houses. They have broad, low roofs, 
and wide overhanging galleries along the sides and front 
of the upper story. Built of unpainted pine, they rest 
upon a stone basement from eight to ten feet high. 
The sun tans these pine houses to a rich brown, thus 
making a tasteful background for the wisteria and 
honeysuckle vines which trail over them. Shelves of 
blooming plants are under the windows, and beehives 
of coiled straw over the doors. 

Rustic gardens full of carnations, asters, roses and 
lilacs border the tiny grass plots. A pile of winter 
fuel is stacked under the projecting eaves. And near 
neighbor to the house is the manure heap. Neatness 
reigns inside and out of some of the chalets. Others 
are sadly untidy — but all are picturesque. Both cattle 
and family are housed under the same roof, even in 
very good houses. The stables open upon the kitchen, 
quite as if cows, sheep, and goats were members of the 
family. 

FROM THE TRAIN WINDOWS. 

Leaving Basel we start for Geneva. The ride promises 
to be a pleasant one, for the railway carriages are so 
constructed that we can roam about and sit wherever 
we like. If we get tired of being inside, we can climb 
up by steps to the roof, and enjoy a fine view from a 
lofty seat. 

Our train skirts the Jura Mountains, now passing 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO SWITZERLAND. 



13 



through tunnels, now winding along narrow ledges 
above swift streams. Lakes gleam in the valleys. 
Vine- wreathed chalets nestle near the roadside. 
Castles rise above the trees on the hillside. 

As the train follows the highway, we have stray 
glimpses of the people. A milk cart is trundled toward 
the village, drawn by a dog and a little boy. Men are 




^ Fn?.^" 



WOMEN IN THE FIELDS. 



sharpening their sickles in the meadows, or are carrying 
produce to market in long baskets strapped to their 
backs. Nearly all are smoking queer, hooked pipes. 
Women are busy in the fields, raking, hoeing, or carrying 
hay in bundles on their backs. A boy with a flock of 
goats is ascending the hill toward a castled summit 



14 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO SWITZERLAND. 

A little girl sits on a doorstep knitting. We see no one 
idling. 

At the stations along the way Swiss girls come to 
tempt us with cool drinks, fruit and other articles of 
food. The Alpine strawberries are delicious, and we 
all wish to try the Swiss cheese for which the country 
is celebrated. 

This Gruyere cheese is made of goat's milk and is 
full of holes. We do not enjoy it so much as the 
Swiss people do, however. 

Our train stops at a town, drawing up before a pretty 
station house built like a chalet, with flowers growing 
on shelves under the windows. An official in uniform 
steps forward to start the train in the oddest way. 
He solemnly toots a little toy horn and away we go, 
to our amazement. We never fail to watch for the 
horn "tooter" after this. Once it is a woman who 
gives the blast. 

Our next stop is Bienne, a town on the border 
between German- and French-speaking districts. It 
is noted for its watchmaking industry. We ask about 
the steep car line which leads up the mountain to a 
watering-place above the town. Someone says it is 
a "funicular," or cable car line. An iron lever on the 
car grips a moving cable running between the rails 
and thus the car is drawn upward. Our guide books 
mention the museum in Bienne, which has a fine col- 
lection of lake-dwelling remains. This is a fine time 
to learn what lake-dwelling remains may be. 
THE LAKE DWELLERS. 

Nothing was known of the race of people called Lake- 
dwellers until about fifty years ago. Then some Swiss 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO SWITZERLAND. 15 

peasants, while digging gardens, stumbled upon the 
long-buried remains of these people. The Swiss lakes 
happened to be very low at that time — so low that 
the peasants were making gardens in the exposed bed 
of the Lake of Zurich, when they suddenly unearthed 
a collection of stone ornaments, household utensils, 
and weapons. They showed these relics to a scientist 
at Zurich, who was at once much interested. He set 
scientists to work searching all the lake shores of 
Switzerland, and thus many more remains were brought 
to light. 

The people who used these weapons and utensils 
must have lived away back in the early dawn of the 
world's history. Yet, in all the following ages, the rest 
of the world had known nothing of their existence. 
They are called the Lake-dwellers, because the relics 
were found in the lake beds. We shall find collections 
of Lake-dwelling remains in many of the Swiss mu- 
seums. 

Some one asks about the beginning of the Swiss 
Republic. How came the Swiss by a free government 
without the sign of a king or queen, when all Europe 
is full of royalty? 

THE THREE FOREST CANTONS. 

Hundreds and hundreds of years after the Lake- 
dwellers had disappeared, the Romans took possession 
of Helvetia (as Switzerland was then called). They 
built towns, roads and fortifications. Then they gave 
way to northern tribes, ancestors of the German 
and the French races. 

That part of the country settled by Germans was 



16 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO SWITZERLAND. 

considered under the German Emperor. The French 
cantons (or states) had a variety of rulers. Being 
shut in by mountains, the people of the German 
cantons were left a good deal to themselves. So they 
learned to manage their own affairs and came to love 
freedom. 

Three cantons in particular, lying on the border of 
Lake Lucerne, clung to their right to govern themselves. 
They were Uri, Schwyz, and Unterwalden, the "three 
forest cantons." The men of these cantons were sturdy 
fighters. When different dukes tried to take away 
their rights, they formed a league. It was called the 
League of the Three Forest Cantons. Swiss school 
children know that the written compact between the 
members of this league is dated August 1, A. D. 1291. 
That is the birthday of the Swiss Republic. Its six- 
hundredth anniversary was celebrated in 1891 by the 
Swiss people. 

Albert I., King of Germany and Duke of Austria, 
determined to conquer these free mountaineers. He 
sent Austrian governors to force them to submission. 
The governors were insolent rulers and so tyrannical 
that the people bore with them but a short time. 
Three leaders, one man from each of the forest cantons, 
met at Rutli to plan rebellion. In a meadow beside 
Lake Lucerne they joined hands and "swore, under the 
open canopy of heaven, to live and die in defense of 
freedom and country." Each man found ten others 
from his canton who were willing to take the oath. 
Then they stirred the cantons to revolt. 

The story of William Tell belongs to this time. We 
shall talk of him later. 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO SWITZERLAND. 17 

Albert I. marched against the revolted cantons, but 
was assassinated on the way. His son, Leopold, led 
the troops forward. In November, 1315, the Swiss 




A VILLAGE STREET. 



defeated the Austrians under Leopold in a terrible 
battle in the Pass of Morgarten. 

After that a number of towns and cantons joined 



18 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO SWITZERLAND. 

the league of the three forest cantons, and the con- 
federacy came to be called Switzerland, from the name 
of the canton of Schwyz. 

ARNOLD VON WINKELRIED. 

The Swiss love their heroes. They tell a story about 
one named Arnold von Winkelried. Twenty years 
after the battle of Morgarten, another Duke Leopold 
tried to conquer tha Swiss. He led several thousanp 
of the best Austrian troops into Switzerland. 

On the heights of Sempach, to meet them, were 
stationed only 1,400 Swiss soldiers. The Austrian 
nobles dismounting, began to surround the little Swiss 
army. They were just ready to close in, when Arnold 
von Winkelried, a knight of Unterwalden, resolved 
to save his country by losing his own life. 

"Dear brothers," he cried, "I will make a way for 
you; take care of my wife and children/ ' Then 
rushing into the midst of the enemy, he cried, "Make 
way for liberty." 

He fell pierced by countless lances. But his brave 
dash into the Austrian ranks did make a path for the 
Swiss. They flung themselves upon the enemy, put 
them to flight, and saved their little land again for 
freedom. Every July the Swiss still meet at Sempach 
to celebrate this victory. 

In time the Swiss soldiers became famous as fighters. 

Their confederacy was a part of the German Empire, 
though ruling itself, until 1648. Then its independence 
was acknowledged. The little republic has had many 
ups and downs since then, but never (for any length 
of time) has it wholly lost its freedom. 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO SWITZERLAND. 19 

NEUCHATEL. 

We are passing through Neuchatel, a little city full 
of charm. It rises from the shore of Lake Neuchatel, 
by a gradual ascent, to the castle on the hill. We look 
from the car windows and behold the Alps in the 
blue haze of the distance. They make a ragged line 
against the sky, where peak on peak may be dimly 
seen. 

Neuchatel is an educational center. In its academy, 
Agassiz, the noted Swiss scientist, was a teacher. We 
like to call Agassiz a fellow-countryman, because he 
spent all the latter part of his life in America. He 
was Professor of Natural Science in Harvard Univer- 
sity, at Cambridge, Massachusetts, but was born in 
Switzerland, and educated in Swiss and German 
universities. He made a study of fish, birds, and 
other animal life, and learned much that was new 
about glaciers. Ten years he spent in the study of 
glaciers, part of the time living in a hut built on the 
Aar Glacier. We shall see that glacier by and by. 
The Neuchatel museum has copies of all his books, 
and cntains his best scientific collection. 

In Neuchatel and the neighboring towns are many 
manual training and industrial schools, where one may 
learn to be a teacher, a watchmaker, a vinegrower, 
a farmer, or whatever his fancy may prompt. 

EDUCATION. 

Swiss schools rank high among those of all Euro- 
pean nations. Education is compulsory. Excellent 
primary and secondary schools are provided for every 
district and the school building is often the best build- 



20 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO SWITZERLAND. 

ing in the village. Teachers are well trained, as each 
canton has a Normal School for that purpose. Besides 
the six famous universities, there are numerous 
academies, boarding schools, manual training and 
industrial schools. 

The land is full of schools which teach the voung 
people trades and useful occupations; so Swiss work- 
men are everywhere in demand. Swiss boys go to 
foreign lands to work as engineers, chemists, dairymen, 
carpenters, masons, and in endless other ways. Swiss 
girls leave home and land to go as teachers, 
governesses, milliners, pastry cooks, and the like. 
When they earn a competence, ba|k they come to their 
mountain homes. 

Switzerland was the first country to open manual 
training schools. Gymnastics, hygiene (the care of 
the health), and singing are important subjects of 
school work, besides arithmetic, grammar, and the 
other common branches. r } * * 

Lunch rooms for children who have far to go, bath 
rooms, and medical attendance are provided in many 
Swiss schools. Children have their nature lessons 
during outdoor excursions with their teachers. Al- 
penstocks in hand, they climb mountains in search of 
both health and knowledge. 

Most Swiss children know their mother tongue and 
another language learned either at school or from friends. 
It is a common custom for Swiss families to exchange 
children so that they may learn another language. A 
German family sends one or two children to live for 
a winter with a French or Italian family, receiving an 
equal number of French or Italian children in return. 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO SWITZERLAND. 21 

From the age of eight years, schoolboys are in- 
structed in the use of firearms. This is because 
Switzerland has no standing army, but requires each 
citizen to serve as a soldier for a certain period. Each 
year the government holds military examinations and 
reviews, which all schoolboys must pass. 

Swiss children enjoy their school life. Ever since 
the days of Pestalozzi, a wise and kind teacher, they 
have had no fear of whippings and harsh treatment. 
Pestalozzi lived in Zurich and taught poor children, 
without pay, because he loved them and found that 
he could help them to grow wise and good. He him- 
self was very poor, but shared his little with the 
orphans whom he gathered about him. 

His best known school was in Yverdon, a town near 
Neuchatel. There he taught for twenty years, and 
was often visited by famous men and women who 
were interested in his methods of education. Children 
taught by Pestalozzi loved to gain knowledge. They 
never wearied of his lessons. The books which he 
wrote about teaching are read all over the civilized 
world. There is a monument to him in Yverdon. 

Another teacher in Pestalozzi's school at Yverdon 
who afterward won fame, was Froebel. He was a 
young German, gifted with a wonderful knowledge of 
child nature. He, too, was poor and had a hard struggle 
to earn a living, but discovered that he knew how to 
teach and so worked away, money or no money. He 
spent two years with Pestalozzi ; opened a school near 
Lucerne ; then another for training teachers at Burgdorf , 
near Berne; and finally returned to Germany, where 
he died in 1852. 



22 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO SWITZERLAND. 



He was the founder of the kindergarten. His great 
book, "The Education of Man/' gives his ideas on edu- 
cation. Kindergarten teachers regard it as the highest 
authority in their work. 

LAUSANNE. 
We travel southwest. Our train enters a tunnel. 
Emerging from its darkness we come into the sun- 
shine of the shore of Lake Leman — the Lake of Geneva. 
This city mounting the sides of Monte Jurat is Lau- 
sanne. Here we stop for a day or two. 

Porters in blue blouses and red caps take our luggage 
to the hotel on their backs. They carry the heaviest 

trunks in this fashion, 
often for long distances. 
Eager to mingle with 
the life of the streets, 
we at once go sight- 
seeing. We take a cable 
car ride to the harbor 
village of Ouchy to see 
the lovely lake. Com- 
ing back to the city, 
we find ourselves 
among the booths of 
the market. 

The middle of several 
steep, crooked streets 
is filled with little cov- 
ered stalls, where ve- 
getables, fruits, flow- 
ers, baked goods, cheese 
and butter are heaped 




STREET SPRINKLER. 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO SWITZERLAND. 23 

pell-mell, and buying and selling are going on at a 
tremendous rate. A busy crowd throngs the place. 
People are talking French so fast that we feel tongue- 
tied with our little stock of phrases. 

Let us buy some late cherries of this peasant girl. 
She looks pretty in her picturesque costume of colored 
skirt, velvet bodice, and big hat. Swiss girls are 
seldom pretty — even those of the wealthy class. Lau- 
sanne girls are said to be the fairest of all. 

Everybody is carrying produce to market or pur- 
chases from it, in a long, flat basket, called a hotte. It 
is strapped to the back, and reaches from neck to 
knees. 

Street sprinklers wander about trying to lay the 
dust. Long water cans on their backs have a rubber 
hose attached, which the sprinkler carries in his hand, 
throwing water in a tiny spray. 

College men loiter among the stalls. They wear the 
little colored caps of the University and smoke long 
pipes continually. They are jolly young fellows and 
make the town gay with their frolics and songs. 
Students come to study at Lausanne from all Europe 
and America — Russians, French, Dutch, Germans, 
English. The sons of King Edward of England were 
educated here. 

We pass by the Hotel de Ville, or town hall, a very 
ancient building and curious in appearance; also the 
Anchor Inn, where Lord Byron, the English poet, lived 
while writing his well-known poem, "The Prisoner of 
Chillon." We shall learn more of the "Prisoner" when 
we visit the castle of Chillon. 

Climbing a long line of wooden steps, we come to 



24 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO SWITZERLAND. 




PEASANT GIRL IN COSTUME OF VAUDOISE CANTON 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO SWITZERLAND. 25 

the cathedral, said to be the most beautiful in Switzer- 
land. We pause to admire its rose window, thirty 
feet in diameter, made of stained glass of marvelous 
colors. Ascending higher, we reach the Signal above 
the town, a point from which we see vineyards stretch- 
ing along the lake shore as far as eye can reach. 

The canton of Vaud, of which Lausanne is capital, 
stands second among the grape-producing cantons of 
Switzerland. Ticino, south of the Alps, is first, having 
thirty-two square miles of vineyards. Grapes are 
grown in all but three cantons of Switzerland — Schwyz, 
Unterwalden, and Appenzell. 

VINEYARDS OF VAUD. 

Some of the vineyards in Vaud are eight hundred 
years old. Of late years new stocks have been widely 
introduced. French vineyards are so near that the 
Swiss must work hard to compete with French grape- 
growers. 

The vines are trained to short, upright poles, and 
are kept close-trimmed in order that the clusters may 
receive more nourishment. Water is brought to the 
vines through troughs which lead up the mountains 
to glacier streams. The work of making and repairing 
these troughs is difficult, sometimes even causing loss 
of life, because of the dangerous places over which 
the troughs must be carried. 

Each commune (or county, as we should say) fixes 
the day on which the gathering of grapes must begin. 
It is usually about the middle of October. Men, 
women and children join in the labor. Poor families 
from mountain villages come, bag and baggage, to live 



26 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO SWITZERLAND. 

near the vineyards while helping to harvest the grapes. 
It seems almost impossible to us that anyone can 
work on some of these slopes. Often they are as steep 
as a roof. 

The clusters are cut with sharp knives, crushed and 
carried to the wine presses in tubs. Old-fashioned wine 
presses are in use. Swiss peasants do not easily adopt 
new ways of doing things. 

An odd custom once existed in these vineyards. 
Boys who stole grapes were shot in the legs — not with 
powder, but with salt. How that must have stung! 
What they do with grape, thieves now we do not learn, 
for we are afraid even to point at a cluster, much 
less to steal one. 

GENEVA. 

From Lausanne we speed southwest toward Geneva. 
We are watching for our first view of Monte Blanc, the 
King of Alpine peaks. It has been in our minds ever 
since we left home. 

Onward through the sweet, sunny land we fly, with 
many a vision of far-off peaks. Suddenly, there is a 
shout, "Monte Blanc ! Monte Blanc !" We crowd about 
the windows. There in the distance towers the snow- 
crowned monarch — a mighty mass lifting its peak 
toward heaven. The boys of our party wave their 
caps with a cheer. 

As the sun drops behind the Jura mountains, our 
train pulls into Geneva. A little French and some 
money settle matters with the red-capped porters. 
They will carry our luggage to the hotel. A cab will 
carry us. 

We roll along wide streets, over superb bridges 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO SWITZERLAND. 



27 



which span the Rhone River, past massive buildings, anp 
through open squares adorned with statues. What a 
gay city, we say, our heads bobbing this way and that 
in our efforts to see everything at once. Geneva is 
called the Paris of Switzerland. 




CHAMOUNI AND MONT BLANC. 



Our hotel faces the granite quays along the lake. 
It is a large, cream-colored building. The quays are 
bordered by a row of hotels colored this same yellow- 
ish white. The windows of our rooms look directly uoon 



28 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO SWITZERLAND. 



the water. Almost beneath them, the river Rhone 
issues from the lake with a current swift and powerful. 
We dress with care for dinner, for there is much 
display of fine toilettes in the Geneva hotels of an 
evening. A chatter of French greets us in the dining- 
room. The waiters, however, speak to us in English. 




GENEVA. 



They seem to know many languages. In this country 
of three races it is easy to learn foreign tongues. Pure 
French is spoken in Geneva. For that reason, wo shall 
find many American and English people living here 
to learn the language. It is cheaper than to live in 
Paris. 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO SWITZERLAND. 29 

We go to the opera house to hear the music. This 
takes us through the brilliantly-lighted streets. Geneva 
uses the power of the Rhone current to make its 
electric lights — just as the city of Buffalo uses the 
power of Niagara Falls to make its electric lights. 

The streets are thronged with people from all Europe. 
String bands play before the cafes. Music sounds from 
the parks, the shops, the open windows of stately 
houses. Everything wears a holiday air. 

Next morning we slip out to a stone pier in the 
harbor. It commands a view of the lake and town. 
How pure the atmosphere! How crystal clear the 
water of the lake! People say that this smiling lake 
sometimes misbehaves, tossing about in anger. We 
cannot believe it. The English poet, Byron, called it 
"beautiful as a dream." The water is wonderfully 
transparent and objects can be seen at a depth of over 
80 feet. Owing to this depth it never freezes over. 
Geneva is the largest lake in Switzerland, having an 
area of 84 square miles. 

To us the white peak beyond the lake is also beauti- 
ful. Monte Blanc is forty miles from Geneva. Although 
it is really in Italy, the Swiss claim it as part of their 
scenery, because it is best seen from the Swiss side. 

We turn our eyes toward the town. The lake shore 
is in the form of a crescent, with a park along its inner 
circle — the Jardin Anglais. On either side the park, 
hotels and pensions front the lake. Their brilliant 
cream color makes a fine contrast with the blue of sky 
and water. Beyond park and hotels, the city rises 
in a pile around the cathedral. Far in the west the 
hills make a dark line against the sky. 



30 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO SWITZERLAND, 



On the lake, steamboats with sweet-toned bells ring- 
ing in their bows cut the blue water. They leave a 
trail of white foam behind them. Heavy barges loaded 
with stone drift past. Their curious lateen-sails make 
us think of old fashioned windmills. 

Looking down the river we see a vista of bridges. 




WASHERWOMEN OF GENEVA. 

The Rhone divides the city into two sections. We 
stroll along its banks and come upon some queer- 
looking houses floating on the water. They belong 
to the Genevese washerwomen. Already the owners 
are at work with their soiled linen spread on boards 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO SWITZERLAND. 31 

in front of them. They are soaping, pounding, and 
gossiping in great comfort. We have many times 
seen people washing in rivers since we came to Europe. 
It seems odd to us, but why not? It saves carrying 
water and emptying tubs. 

We climb steep old streets to the ancient quarter of 
the town. We are going to the cathedral of St. Peter. 
This building is we know not how old, and parts of 
two older churches have been discovered beneath 
it. Here preached John Calvin, the great Protestant 
divine. Calvin was a French Catholic priest who in 
early manhood left his church to become a Protestant 
preacher. He was invited to Geneva, which was then 
a strict Protestant city. During the Reformation it 
was called the "Protestant Rome." Calvin's name is 
closely, associated with the history of Geneva. He was 
one of its greatest citizens. We sit in Calvin's chair, 
which has a place of honor in front of the pulpit. 
Sundays there is wonderful music in this old church — 
solemn chants and chorals which echo back from the 
vaulted ceiling, while the great organ plays with 
power. We shall hear about all this later. 

Leaving the cathedral we wander about ancient little 
streets with terrible names. The Street of Purgatory 
is one. The houses are hundreds of years old. They 
look dark and evil, to match the names of the streets. 

On the hill we pass fine old mansions. They are the 
homes of Geneva's aristocracy. The dwellings date 
back to a remote past when the town was passing 
through stirring scenes. Geneva has been the home of 
many distinguished people, the battleground of many 
bloody struggles. 



32 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO SWITZERLAND. 

Last of all we make the rounds of the shops. Geneva 
has a population of 104,044. It is the third largest 
city in Switzerland. The people are a busy folk. They 
make watches and clocks, jewelry, music boxes and 
electrical appliances. In some respects there are no 
finer shops in all Europe than in Geneva. 

The music boxes attract us. They are made in every 
manner of form and size, and are worked like clocks 
to play tunes. We admire a great orchestrion which 
sounds' like a pipe organ. Then we listen in astonish- 
ment to a tune played by a match box. A little wooden 
bird trills at us from its cage. We pick up a hand 
mirror, which immediately begins to jingle the strains 
of a Sunday-school song. We admire an album, and 
the shop-keeper sets it to playing an air from an opera. 
Clocks, snuff-boxes, foot-stools— all play airs, to our 
amazement. 

We say, "Well, let us sit down and get used to these 
surprises." Straightway, the chair under us begins 
to play "America." The workmanship on these boxes 
is of the finest. We buy a number of them and go tink- 
ling and jingling down the street to look at the watches. 

Geneva has made watches for over two hundred 
years. They are beautiful in design. We buy one as 
a souvenir, although' Americans and English no longer 
need buy Swiss watches. Our own factories supply 
us. 

The canton of Neuchatel is the real center of Swiss 
watchmaking. Nearly every village in the canton is 
engaged in this industry. Some of the work is done 
in factories; more is done in the workers' homes. 
Often the peasants of this and neighboring cantons 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO SWITZERLAND. 33 

turn to watch and clock making as an evening employ- 
ment. Thus they add to the slender incomes from 
their farms. 

Geneva is proud of its schools. The University 
draws students from Europe and America. More stu- 
dents attend it than any other Swiss university. It 
was founded by John Calvin. Women as well as men 
are admitted to its courses of study. The Conservatory 
of Music has an international reputation. 

The Swiss Housekeeping School for Girls proves a 
delightful place to visit. It was founded by the Govern- 
ment, and its tuition is free. Its object is to teach 
young girls housework and habits of order and econ- 
omy. The girls learn, as well, French, German, com- 
mercial geography, accounts, and the laws of health, 
or hygiene. The housekeeping lessons occupy a little 
more than half their time. 

In the school kitchen we find about two dozen girls 
getting luncheon. It is a large, conveniently arranged 
room. Two ranges, long tables, plenty of utensils 
hung within easy reach, make work seem like play. 

The girls, in immaculate aprons, with sleeves tucked 
up, fly about happy as larks. One hands us their 
luncheon menu. It is printed in French. They are 
to have omelette, creamed potatoes, a wonderful salad, 
rolls, and another dish. We cannot translate its name. 

The bright little cooking-teacher shows us the refriger- 
ator, storeroom, and dining-room. Everything is 
spotlessly clean. The girls are taught marketing, she 
says. They learn to buy so that there will be no waste. 
This luncheon will cost but five cents apiece. 

The class in ironing takes our fancy. Muslin gar- 



34 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO SWITZERLAND. 

ments are being smoothed so deftly and daintily that 
the girls in our party want to join the class. Such 
beautiful work does make ironing seem a most fascinat- 
ing occupation. 

Here is a class in cutting. The girls are learning 
to cut a sleeve. Another group is learning to darn. 
Mending, cleaning, making beds, sweeping — the girls 
learn to do all in the very best way. It is a delightful 
school. 

Geneva has several museums. Its library was 
founded hundreds of years ago by Bonivard, a patriot 
and reformer. We shall learn more of him later on. 

Sunday is a gay holiday in Geneva— Geneva, with 
its strict Calvinistic bringing-up! We go to morning 
service at the cathedral. Crowds of people attend to 
hear the music. Services are held also in the English 
and the American churches. The Young Men's Christian 
Association has a religious meeting, and a Salvation 
Army band sings at street corners. This seems like 
home. But the throngs are out for a good time. 

People crowd parks, cafes, steamboats, and Kursaal. 
The Kursaal is a garden, music-hall and restaurant, 
combined. People sit at tables under trees, eating, 
drinking, and listening to music. The waitresses fly 
about rapidly. 

In the evening the orchestra plays in the Jardin An- 
glais. We sit under the trees and think surely here is 
Fairy Land. On the lake every manner of little boat 
and craft is afloat. Chinese lanterns, like fireflys, 
gleam all over them. The fountain in the lake begins 
to play. Its spray is forced upward over two hundred 
feet by the power of the Rhone current. Electric lights 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO SWITZERLAND. 35 

throw ever-changing colors upon its leaping waters. 
The lake reflects thousands of lights. 

THE SHORES OF LAKE GENEVA. 

We take the steamboat at Geneva and circle around 
the lake past Lausanne to the towns and resorts along 
the eastern shore. A band on board plays, while we 
sit under the deck awning and enjoy the scenes pass- 
ing before us. 

Railroads, carriage roads, electric car lines, and foot- 
paths connect the villages on this eastern shore. It is 
a tourist-haunted region. There stretch the terraced 
vineyards of Vaud, acres on acres of them. Here 
masses of foliage bank the hills where chalets, villas, 
and castles rise. Villages straggle along the shore in 
irregular lines. We see sailboats making for them, 
their queer-shaped canvases spread wide. They are 
carrying cabbages, potatoes, cauliflower, chestnuts, 
bundles of hay, and wild mountain fruits to the mar- 
kets. 

At a convenient point we land and take to the foot- 
path which leads under shady trees, through cool, green 
nooks, to the Castle of Chillon. 

THE CASTLE OF CHILLON. 

The castle stands by the water side, where its square 
towers with narrow slits of windows show above the 
tree tops. We think of the thousands of prisoners who 
have perished within those walls, as we cross the 
bridge to its entrance. 

Chillon has a long history. Its history dates back to 
the Roman occupation, or beyond it, for a prison 
seems always to have stood on this spot. 



36 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO SWITZERLAND. 



The most widely-known prisoner of Chillon was Boni- 
vard, the founder of the library in Geneva. It was of 
him that Lord Byron wrote while living at the Anchor 
Inn of Lausanne. 

Bonivard was a Genevese gentleman of high birth — 
a Protestant and patriot, when his native city was 




CASTLE OF CHILLON. 

trying to free itself from Catholic rule. He fought 
boldly against the enemies of Geneva and was thrown 
into the Castle of Chillon. There he was confined for 
six weary years. The last four years he was imprisoned 
in an underground vault lower than the lake. He 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO SWITZERLAND. 37 

was fastened to a stone pillar by an iron chain four feet 
long, so that he could walk only within a narrow circle. 
He made no outcry, but paced to and fro over the stone 
floor, until he wore a little path in it. We see the path' 
and on the pillar the names of Lord Byron and of 
several other distinguished people who have visited 
the vault. 

At last Bonivard was set free by the people of Berne 
and of Geneva. Together they stormed the castle, 
both by land and sea, took it, and rushing into the 
prisoner's vault broke his chain, shouting joyfully that 
he was free — he, and Geneva too, for the long strug- 
gle had been won* 

The castle has five subterranean (meaning under- 
ground) vaults. Above we enter the Hall of Justice 
and the Chamber of Tortures, where prisoners were 
put to the rack. We see the pits, now filled, which 
led down to the lake and through which prisoners 
were hurled into* the water. The castle is no longer a 
prison. Its only occupants now are the guards who 
show the place to visitors. 

FESTIVAL OF THE VINTAGE. 

Near Chillon is the town of Vevay. It is the grape- 
culture center of the canton of Vaud. Every fifteen 
years or more a beautiful festival is held at Vevay, 
which attracts visitors from all the world. It ranks 
with the great German "Passion Play," although it is 
not a religious festival as is the Passion Play. 

How we regret that we cannot see the Festival of 
the Vintage! The last one was held in August, 1889. 
Perhaps another one will be given in 1904. The last 



58 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO SWITZERLAND. 

one continued five days. The performance consists of 
fancy dances, chorus singing, processions, and panto- 
mimes. Only the people of Vevay take part in the 
programme, being trained for months beforehand. 
Appropriate costumes and the best of music are pro- 
vided. 

An immense open-air amphitheater was built for the 
festival of 1889. On three sides of it rows of seats rose 
one above the other, making room for visitors. An 
arched entrance for the performers occupied the fourth 
side, with the mountains far beyond Vevay forming a 
natural background. Of the thousands of visitors who 
came, many were turned away for lack of room. Seats 
sold at fabulous prices. 

The festival opens with a magnificent procession. A 
boom of cannon followed by band music announces its 
coming to the audience. First appears a body of Swiss 
troops in national costume, carrying ancient weapons. 
Following them is a guild of wine-growers, with their 
leader ahead holding a cross on high. The members 
of the guild are in the uniforms of their order. 

Then, amid loud cheers from the audience, " Spring 
and her Train" enter. Spring is represented by little 
children dressed as fairies, bearing garlands of flowers 
and dancing. Spring's train is a long line of shepherds 
and shepherdesses leading goats, mowers with scythes, 
gardeners with flowers, and herdsmen and dairy-maids 
leading dappled cows. All are in gay costume, and 
perform in imitation of their real duties. 

Summer and her train follow. Haymakers, gleaners 
and threshers, with forks, sheaves and flails, go through 
the motions of raking, gleaning and threshing. 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO SWITZERLAND. 39 

Autumn's train is the important feature of the pro- 
cession, being the vintagers themselves. They dance 
around Bacchus (the god of wine), who rides in a gor- 
geous chariot. The gathering of grapes and the working 
of wine presses is all done in pantomime. 

The effect of the rhythmic movements, music, colors 
of costumes and flowers is dazzling. At the last, all 
join in singing the herdsman's song and other national 
airs. Each festival differs from the others, but the 
programme always has the processions of the seasons 
in some form. 

AN ALPINE POST RIDE. 

We go to Chamounix, a village noted for its position 
opposite Monte Blanc. It is in a high valley, encircled 
by mountains, where glaciers and snowy peaks add 
grandeur to the view. A railroad goes from Geneva 
to Chamounix, but we take the diligence, or post, from 
the Rhone valley, arranging to take the last stage of the 
journey on mules. This will enable us to see the 
mountains. 

The post is a huge coach, drawn by four horses. It 
carries both mail and passengers. The old-fashioned 
coaches are yellow. They have seats inside and high at 
the back for passengers, and one up in front, where the 
postilion sits. We start in the early morning, with a 
clatter of hoofs and cracking of whips delightful to 
hear. A little procession of omnibuses and carriages 
follows us, containing tourists who were too late to get 
seats in the post. 

We go bowling over the smooth road at a great pace, 
overtaking all manner of vehicles. Here go a party of 
tourists on mules. They travel slowly, because these 



40 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO SWITZERLAND. 



mountain mules do as they choose, caring nothing for 
prods of the whip. Bicycle riders fly past, with knap- 
sacks strapped to their handle bars. An automobile 
overtakes us, filled with merrymakers who are tooting 
horns and trying to yodel like herdsmen. The yodel 
is a cry used by Swiss herdsmen to call their cattle. 

Alas! we cannot see the Alps. The morning is too 
misty. That is the way the weather treats mountain 




THE DILIGENCE. 



sightseers sometimes. It just pulls a mist veil over 
the mountains' heads, and, for all we can see, there is 
nothing but level land all around. 

We dash into villages with a fine flourish, bringing up 
in their squares to leave the mail. The postmistress 
rushes out, the girls at the fountain stare, and a little 
boy comes leading a goat in great haste. 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO SWITZERLAND. 41 

Will we have a drink of milk? he asks. 

He milks the goat for us, a cupful at a time, and 
we drink the liquid — not because we like it, but 
because we want to try everything. A fellow-passenger 
tells us that she has been staying at a "milk cure" in 
the mountains. 

SWISS "CURES." 

Invalids go to "milk cures" to drink goats' milk 
as a cure for many diseases. They train themselves to 
drink several pints of fresh, warm milk daily. 

Another passenger speaks of the "grape cure" near 
Vevay. Invalids at this cure eat all the grapes they 
can swallow, between certain hours of each day. 
They think such treatment is good for consumption, 
rheumatism and the. like. She tells us that there is 
another Swiss "cure" still more remarkable. 

It is the hot baths _at Leuk, where sick folks sit in 
tanks of hot water which is up to their necks, eight or 
nine hours daily. Dozens of them sit in the same 
tank, talking, playing games on little floating tables, 
or reading. It is a funny sight, she says, to see only 
heads grouped around the floating tables. 

VILLAGES. 

Variety is the spice of Swiss life. No two cantons 
are alike, and no two villages. The differences of 
language, race, religion, and costume, make each little 
community like nothing but itself. 

We pass through a charming village. It looks as 
if ready for a photographer's snap shot, so flowery and 
smiling are its chalets. As in all towns, a fountain 
has the place, of honor in the middle of the square. 



42 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO SWITZERLAND. 



Leading from the square, cobble-stone streets zig-zag 
among the houses. A church, a school house, a " drink 
hall" and a court house with an old clock tower are 
the more prominent buildings. 

The dwellings have the usual whitewashed base- 
ments and broad, low roofs, the shingles of which are 




AN ALPINE VILLAGE. 



held on by stones. Terrific winds blow down the 
mountains at times. So the stones are necessary. 
The houses are from one to three stories high, each 
story generally sheltering a different family. The best 
houses have the name of the builder, the date when 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO SWITZERLAND. 43 

built, and a motto or scripture text burned into the 
wood over the door. Some have painted wooden 
shutters over the windows, some have their stairways 
outside, and some are quite fine with tile roofs and 
carved wood decorations. 

The bedding seems forever airing on the balconies 
or in the front windows. We should want to air the 
whole interior ourselves, if we had the stables built 
under our own roofs (as they do) and a manure heap 
at hand. Every house has this manure heap. The 
manure is gathered from stables and road — a fact 
which explains the clean roads. We pass women and 
children, with baskets, gathering it from the highway. 
They pile the heaps in layers, with straw between, and 
braid the edges of the straw — perhaps to make it look 
handsome ! 

But the flower gardens atone for the manure heaps. 
Seldom may one see such roses, violets, geraniums 
and asters as grow in pots on the balconies, on shelves 
under the windows, or in plots by the roadside. We 
see few of the picturesque costumes of which we have 
heard and read. The women folk wear blue home- 
spun, the men blue working blouses and loose trousers. 
We search the faces of the girls at the fountains, where 
they are cleaning vegetables. Not one pretty face do 
we see. But they are intelligent faces — bright and 
wholesome. The fountain is the social center of the 
village. The family washing is done here, about three 
or four times a year. That means that the Swiss 
housewife has a bountiful supply of linen. To wash 
every week looks as if one had but few clothes, they say. 

There is always someone in the square ready to sell 



44 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO SWITZERLAND. 

us things while the post horses are being watered. 
They offer us tiny baskets of mountain fruit, nuts, 
flowers, mountain minerals, carved wooden toys in the 
form of little chalets which, when opened, prove to be 
needle-boxes, picture postal cards, and photographs 
of the scenery. One little girl offers us a bunch of 
edelweiss. 

This velvety white flower is much in demand with 
travelers, because it is so hard to find. It grows in very 
high altitudes, amid the snow, and usually on some 
crag or brink of a precipice. The blossom is a close 
cluster of flower heads within a circle of leaves. It is 
somewhat like our own " everlasting. " All other Alpine 
flowers are exceedingly brilliant in color. The edel- 
weiss alone is white. 

So far, we have missed the fine scenery. It is now 
time to leave the post and mount our mules. Suddenly 
— in an instant, it seems — the clouds lift. There are the 
mountains! We look at their great masses, rising 
height on height, and say no word, feeling very small 
and worthless in the presence of works so great. 

OVER THE MOUNTAINS. 

We start up the mountain, clinging to our mules, 
with faith in their skill as climbers. Soon we are in the 
midst of scenes of terrible grandeur. Peaks white with 
the snow of ages shine above banks of white cloud. 
We ride toward them along a narrow path where 
precipices rise sheer on one side and chasms yawn on 
the other. Mountain torrents plunge down the 
ravines, leaping over stones with a roar. Granite rocks 
overhang the way, looking as if they would fall upon us. 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO SWITZERLAND. 



45 



The road leads around sharp turns, which take our 
breath by their suddenness. We look ahead and see it 
entering a tunnel cut in the rocks, or winding above us 
in places we are positive we cannot reach. 

These great and awful mountains make us tremble, 
but the guide smiles at our fears. The danger is 

nothing to him ; 
neither is it any- 
thing to our mules. 
We hired the 
mules, hoping to 
get into dangerous 
places. Being in 
the mountains, 
danger is what we 
looked for ; but we 
were not expect- 
ing to feel quite 
so dizzy. Our 
mules step out 
recklessly to the 
very edge of a 
precipice and 
amble along, as 
cool as you please. 
If one side of the 
road is more 
dangerous than 
the other, they choose the more dangerous side. 
Perhaps they are trying to give us our money's worth 
of dizziness, but we feel that we are getting more than 
we paid for. 



1 




* n 






. ■ . 


js?Jj& > 


*4. ' : IBB * "- . 

i 



A. MOUNTAIN CHALET. 
(Peasant Hut ) 



46 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO SWITZERLAND. 

When we reach Chamounix, the top of Mont Blanc is 
aglow from the setting sun. As we stand on the hotel 
piazza and gaze in wonder, the snow on the summit of 
the peak gradually changes color — from blood red 
fading softly to palest pink. As darkness comes upon 
our valley, the pink turns gray. Long before the sun 
has set in the lower valleys, we Chamounix people are 
eating dinner by electric light — so short are the days 
when mountains wall us in. 

Monte Blanc does not stand a solitary peak rising 
from level ground. All about it are mountains and 
peaks, some of which look even higher than it. It is 
fairly covered with glaciers. Sixty-four of them drain 
from Monte Blanc into the valley of Chamounix. Many 
of them may be seen from the heights around the 

village. 

GLACIERS. 

There are no less than four hundred glaciers in the 
Alps. They average from sixteen to eighteen miles in 
length, from one to two miles in width, and from one 
hundred to one thousand feet in depth. Their entire 
surface is about one thousand square miles. They 
are formed near the line of perpetual snow: that is, 
from eight thousand to nine thousand feet above 
sea level. 

At that height more snow falls each year than can 
be melted. Thus a great mass is formed, which melts 
and freezes a little each day. The alternate melting 
and freezing, and the great weight of the mass, turn 
the lower layers to ice. 

Then the ice begins to creep down the mountain, 
traveling less than a foot a day. So vast is the glacier 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO SWITZERLAND. 



47 






that it creeps as far down as the grain fields and 
forests without melting. We think it a strange sight — 
these great rivers of ice, with flowers blooming and 
grain waving along their sides. 

As the glacier moves downward, huge masses of 
sand, stones, and great rocks, fall upon it, sink, and 

cling to its under 
surface. These are 
dragged al o n g , 
cutting great 
grooves in the 
rocky surface of 
the earth, or hol- 
lowing out basins 
in the soil. The 
basins fill with 
water and form 
lakes. The beds 
of all Swiss lakes 
were made by 
glaciers ages ago. 
When a glacier 
reaches the warm 
lower slopes, it 
melts and flows 
away to form riv- 
ers. The load of rocks which it carries is dropped 
at the melting end in heaps, called terminal moraines. 
Sometimes the terminal moraines are one hundred 
and fifty or two hundred feet high. 

Masses of rock dropped along the side of a glacier 
&re called lateral mbraines. Those in the middle 




A MOUNTAIN SHRINE. 



48 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO SWITZERLAND. 

formed by two glaciers uniting, are called medial 
moraines. 

The surface of glaciers is rough and billowy, and 
broken by great cracks, called crevasses — hundreds of 
feet wide, and a thousand or more feet deep. In some 
places the surface looks as if it had been blown up by 
an explosion. Blocks of ice are heaped one upon 
another in confusion. 

When an immense rock falls upon the glacier, it 
keeps the ice beneath it from melting, by shading it 
from the sun. The surrounding surface gradually 
melts, leaving the rock upon a slowly rising table of ice. 
This is called a " glacier table. " When the weight of 
the rock becomes too great, the table breaks, and its 
load, falling again upon the surface, starts to rise on a 
new table. 

CLIMBING THE MER DE GLACE. 

We hire a guide, and prepare to climb the Mer de 
Glace glacier. Its name means "sea of ice." We buy 
smoked glasses to protect our eyes from the glare of 
the snow, thick hobnailed shoes, and alpenstocks. 
The latter are long poles tipped with iron points, and 
having tops of chamois horn. They will help us to 
keep our footing in slippery places, or leap clefts in the 
ice. We wear warm clothing and carry lunches and 
wraps in knapsacks strapped to our backs. 

The Mer de Glace is the best known glacier on Mont 
Blanc. It has been called the Glacier of the American 
Girl, because it is the least difficult to ascend of all 
Swiss glaciers. American girls are said to disl' 1 u °^d 
climbing. To us it looks very difficult, but o 
knows the way. 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO SWITZERLAND. 



49 



He has a rope, with which he ties us all together, 
single file. By keeping the rope stretched tight between 
each two of us, we can hold back any of our number 
who slips. Where the walking is difficult, the guide 
cuts steps in the ice with his ax. Less timid climbers 

ascend this glacier 
with neither ropes 
nor guides to aid 
them. 

We tread care- 
fully, for we go 
where cracks open 
so deep that we 
dare not look to 
the bottom Water 
trickles over the 
surface, making it 
slippery. Loose 
stones lie ready to 
trip us on slopes 
where, once being 
started, we should 
slide downward 
to destruction. 
Torrents roar be- 
neath the glacier. 
the mer de glace. We see them at t he 

bottom of deep ravines in the ice. The guide tells of 
people who have fallen into these icy depths and made 
their way out by following the stream through its 
cavern. 

Proud of our success in climbing, on our return we 




50 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO SWITZERLAND. 

have the shopkeeper at Chamounix burn the name 
"Mer de Glace " into the handles of our alpenstocks. 
Skilled climbers have their alpenstocks covered with 
the names of mountains which they have ascended. 
We should like to climb Mont Blanc, but find that it 
takes three days, besides costing each person from 
fifty to one hundred dollars for guides, porters and 
provisions. 

Only within the last century or so have people dared 
to scale the highest Alpine peaks. Then men began to 
make their way to the tops, peak by peak — with hair- 
breadth escapes or fatal accidents in every case. 

THE FIRST ASCENT OF MONT BLANC. 

In 1786, a naturalist of Geneva, named DeSaus- 
sure, offered a large reward to the first man who should 
reach the top of Mont Blanc. Balmat, a strong, young 
chamois-hunter, determined to win the prize. He 
spent weeks studying every path up the mountain. 
Once he was in the snow of the upper heights for three 
nights, only to be driven back unsuccessful. 

After many defeats, he set out in a last effort to 
reach the top. A physician, named Paccard, went 
with him. They left Chamounix after dark that no 
one might see them and, after resting on the mountain 
until two o'clock in the morning, began to climb. The 
people of Chamounix watched them through telescopes, 
as they made their way up the difficult slopes. They 
had a hard struggle to advance. A deep, deep abyss 
could be crossed only by creeping over a narrow bridge 
of rock, or they must cut steps up a precipice of ice; 
or must climb a wall of rock by clinging to twigs, in 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO SWITZERLAND. 51 

danger of falling any instant into ravines a thousand 
feet deep. The icy wind nearly froze them. 

At length Dr. Paccard gave out ; he could not go a 
step farther. Balmat left him in the snow and strug- 
gled on. Presently he came to a high point. He tells 
this story: 

"I was walking with my head bowed down; but 
perceiving that I was upon a point which I did not 
recognize, I raised my head and saw that I had at 
length reached the summit of Mont Blanc. Then I 
turned my eyes about me, trembling lest I had deceived 
myself and should find some new point, for I should not 
have the strength to climb it. The joints of my legs 
seemed held together only by my trousers. But no! 
no! I was at the end of my journey. I had arrived 
where no one had been before, not even the eagle and 
the chamois. I was the King of Mont Blanc.' ' 

He went back to Paccard and led him to the summit. 
After spending another night on the mountain, they 
returned to Chamounix. 

Many people now make the ascent every summer. 
There is a little observatory on top built pyramid 
shape. It stands on a foundation of snow and is 
heated and furnished. Small parties may stay there 
two or three days, if they wish. Breathing is not easy 
in the thin air of that altitude. Nor can one boil 
water, if he wants a cup of coffee, because the pressure 
of the air is too light. 

A monument in memory of Balmat' s ascent stands 
in the square at Chamounix. It represents De Saus- 
sure and Balmat standing with their faces toward 
Mont Blanc. Balmat is pointing toward the summit. 



52 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO SWITZERLAND.' 



CHAMOIS. 

While climbing about the mountains, we see our 
first chamois. It is a tame one, led by a boy. Wild 
chamois are disappearing from the mountains, driven 
out by hunters or by the railroads. Some are still 
found around Berne and in the southeastern cantons. 

The chamois belongs to the antelope family, but looks 
like a goat. Its shoulders are two feet above the 




THE CHAMOIS (^j uat. size). 



ground ; the length of its body, about three and one- 
half feet. Its body is covered with long, fawn- 
colored hair which turns dark brown in winter. 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO SWITZERLAND. 53 

Chasms from sixteen to eighteen feet wide are leaped 
by these agile creatures as easily as we step across a 
ditch. They skip about the ledges of high mountains 
or climb down the face of a rocky precipice where no 
man could follow. Their fore feet are close together, 
with hoofs shaped for climbing the hard, uneven sur- 
faces. Chamois hunters must be nimble climbers, and 
wary, to keep up with their game. The only way to 
get a shot at one is for a party of hunters -to surround 
the mountain, creep up its sides cautiously, and sur- 
prise the herd — if herd there be. For the most part 
they do not dwell in herds. 

In summer they retreat to the tops of mountains, 
where snow lies, for they like cold weather. Shrubs, 
flowers and twigs are their food, which they season by 
licking salt from the rocks. In our higher excursions 
we come upon rocks hollowed out by the frequent 
licking of chamois. They seldom drink water. 

The senses of smell and of hearing are keen. They 
can scent tracks made in the snow, even when partly 
covered. A sound reaches them from a remarkable 
distance. When any suspicious object attracts their 
attention, they stand perfectly still, gazing directly at 
it, their heads high and nostrils quivering. 

They and the eagles are the highest dwellers of the 
Alps. The marmot, red and white foxes, Alpine hare, 
and wild goats are occasionally found. But severe 
winters have almost entirely robbed the mountains of 
animal life. 
THE SUMMER PASTURES AND HERDSMEN'S HOMES. 

Once, when climbing a mou 3ome out upon 

the flowery summer pasture In alps, green and 



54 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO SWITZERLAND. 

fragrant. We hear the tinkle of cow bells mingling 
with the sound of alphorn and the herdsman's 
yodel, and stop at a cowherd's chalet to rest and look 
about us. 

Every spring, when the snow begins to melt from 
these high pastures, the cattle are brought here from 
their winter stalls in the villages. They begin at the 
lower alps, ascending higher, from time to time, as 
the summer passes. In July they reach the highest 
pastures, away above tree line, where they spend from 
six to eight weeks. After that they descend, a pasture 
at a time, to feed on the later growth of grass. 

The departure for the alps in the spring is a time of 
general rejoicing in the villages. Herdsmen, milk- 
maids, and at times whole families, go with the cows, 
goats and sheep, carrying along the needful household 
goods for their summer chalets. All the village turns 
out to accompany the procession part way up the 
mountains, singing,yodelling,and making merry. There 
is the same rejoicing at their return in the fall. 

The cowherd's chalet where we rest is a rude log 

hut built on a slope, with lofty mountains around it 

and broad snowfields sending a breath of cold air across 

its waving grass. Little furniture adorns the chalet — 

a rude bunk in the t • tier with a bunch of hay for a 

bed, a board tabli I *ich, and stove whereon is a 

huge kettle. We ch the cowherd's wife make 

cheese. 

CHEBSE MAKING. 

First, she heats milk in the great cauldron. 

Then rennet i curdle it, after which the mix- 

ture is allowed topti from twenty to thirty minutes. 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO SWITZERLAND. 55 

Then she skims it, stirs and stirs it with a wooden 
ladle, and lets it boil. The whey is strained off for the 
pigs, the curds put in the cheese press, and everything 
scrubbed clean for the next cheese-making. The 
cheeses have to be turned and rubbed with salt daily. 
The best Swiss cheeses come from Gruyere, a little 
valley southwest of Berne. 

We gather handfuls of flowers of the most vivid 
colors and sweetest fragrance. There are deep, deep 
blue violets, gentians, forget-me-nots, purple pansies, 
glorious chrysanthemums, and red — blood red — Alpine 
roses. Nowhere else in the world can one find more 
brilliant, fragrant flowers than on these Swiss Alps. 

Life on the summer pastures is hard, but wholesome, 
for the air is sweet and pure, and the life an outdoor 
one. The herdsmen's fare is plain and nourishing — 
cheese, curds, rye bread with the sweetest of butter, 
dried or, fresh fruits, and coffee made with milk. Meat 
is a rare article of diet with the average Swiss family, 
whether in the villages or on the pastures. 

We admire the beautiful cows, sleek and mild-eyed. 
Their bells are tuned to harmonize in tone, the largest 
bell belonging to the leader of the herd, while the 
heifers have small ones with a tiny tinkle. Sets of 
these cow bells cost from fifty to sixty dollars. At 
evening time the cows answer to their herdsmen's 
yodel and alphorn, and come trooping to be milked. 
Herdsmen and milkmaids have their little one-legged 
milking stools strapped on, so that their hands may 
be free to carry the pails. 

Goats and sheep feed on less fertile pastures. They 
are able to nibble among rocks and thistles on more 



56 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO SWITZERLAND. 

barren slopes ; for, you see, neither a goat nor a sheep 
has any such social position as a cow. 

The alphorns are wooden tubes, from six to eight 
feet long. A blast from one of them wakes the echoes 
for miles around. As night falls, they can be heard far 
down in the valleys, giving the herdsmen's good night. 

As the sun sets, the herdsman on the loftiest height 
puts his lips to the tube and calls loudlv, " Praise the 
Lord God!" 

Alphorns below take up the words, repeating them 
from mountain to mountain. When all have ceased, 
the solitary herdsman high above them again sounds 
his horn, "Good night, good night!" 

"Good night!" echo the horns from remote alps. 
Then darkness falls, and the herdsmen's night of rest 
begins. 

THE ST. BERNARD HOSPICE. 

The Great St. Bernard is a Pass through the moun- 
tains east of the Mont Blanc group of peaks. At the 
summit of the Pass is the St. Bernard hospice — a 
combination of monastery and shelter house. Ten or 
twelve monks stay there all winter, to give aid to 
benighted travelers obliged to cross the Pass. So 
severe are the winter snows in this desolate region 
that many are lost in drifts, or overcome by the cold. 
These the monks strive to find and save. In summer 
time thousands of tourists visit the hospice. 

Nine hundred years ago — and over — the hospice was 
founded by a monk named St. Bernard. * In all the 
centuries since, many lives have been saved by the 
good brothers, who stay there for that sole reason. % 

We have seen in story books pictures of the St. 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO SWITZERLAND. 57 

Bernard dogs, with flasks of brandy strapped to their 
necks, hunting in snow drifts for lost people. We are 
eager to visit the monks, see their dogs, and hear tales 
of their wonderful rescues of travelers. 

At a village near the entrance to the Pass we 
mount mules. There is a carriage road to the hospice, 
built in recent years. However, we prefer to ride 
mules. If we should get lost in a snow drift and be 
found by the dogs, that would just suit us. It would 
be like the story-book pictures. But as it is an 
August afternoon, there is little hope of such an 
adventure. 

As we ascend the Pass, the air grows keen. Higher 
and higher we go, like the boy in Longfellow's " Excel- 
sior. " Have you read that poem? Presently we 
mount beyond tree line. At a certain altitude trees 
cease to grow. We are on a bare, rocky height. Patches 
of snow appear. 

A light snow actually begins to fall. This is fun! 
We dismount to pick flowers — here a daisy, there an 
Alpine rose, growing close to patches of snow. Some 
find deep blue forget-me-nots — only a few. The 
Alpine rose is most beautiful. It is a kind of rhodo- 
dendron. But we must hasten forward. 

The journey grows more difficult. Night is coming 
on, and we are tired, cold and hungry. We no longer 
wish to be lost. Now the hospice may be seen through 
the flying snow. It is a welcome sight. 

Two great prison-like buildings stand beside a dark 
lake, with mountains looming round about them. The 
hospice is over eight thousand feet above sea level. 

A young monk greets us cordially at the door and 



58 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO SWITZERLAND. 



leads us to the sitting room, where a fire blazes on the 
hearth. The room is filling with arriving tourists, whose 
talking makes a cheerful buzz of voices. Several 
distinguished people are present. Plenty of plain folk 
like ourselves are there as well. All are pleasant 
and companionable. 




ST BERNARD HOSPICE 



Down a long corridor (with doors opening from it 
on either side, as if to prison cells) we go to our rooms. 
They are neat, but bare — no carpets and no fires. 
The monks cut their wood and bring it up the Pass 
with much difficulty. So they have to be sparing of 
fires in summer. Winters here last eight months of 
the year. 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO SWITZERLAND. 59 

At seven o'clock we descend to the refectory (dining- 
room) for dinner. Here there is light, warmth and cheer. 
New parties of tourists keep coming in as we eat. 
The dinner is excellent. So are our appetites. 

The brothers themselves assist in waiting on the 
tables. They are clad in black cloth habits, which 
button close in front and reach to the feet. A white 
band, passing around the neck and down the front, is 
fastened behind to the girdle. 

Father B. tells us that sixty guests have arrived 
this evening. All are received without question, and 
entertained free. The winter travelers are poor 
peasants, who can pay nothing. Summer guests may, 
if they wish, put money in the alms box of the chapel. 
We determine to place there enough to pay for our 
entertainment. Sometimes tourists fail to do this — a 
great wrong to the generous monks. 

Where do they put so many guests? The hospice 
has about eighty beds, says Father B. They tuck 
people away somehow. Some summers they have had 
as man} r as five hundred at a time. Think of feeding 
such an army! 

Many distinguished people have spent a night at 
the hospice. We are shown the room where Napoleon, 
the French General, slept. 

The monks lead a busy life. They are young men, 
none over thirty-three years of age. Only the strongest 
ones are chosen to stay here through the winter. Even 
then, the cold and hard life make invalids of some, 
forcing them to return to the valleys. 

Summers, they look after the house and guests, care 
for the animals, and cut fuel. In winter storms they 



60 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO SWITZERLAND. 

go daily about the paths looking for lost travelers. 
The dogs are their faithful assistants in these searches. 

A telephone connects the hospice with villages 
at either end of the Pass. Since it was put in, fewer 
accidents have occurred. People now ask the monks 
about the weather before setting out to cross the Pass. 
Still, a winter never passes without accidents, often 
fatal ones. 

We pass a pleasant evening around the sitting-room 
fire. There is music, and conversation in spite of the 
mixture of languages. The monks speak French and 
Italian. They tell interesting tales of their dogs. One 
story is of a dog which saved forty lives. 

Before daybreak, next morning, we slip down in 
answer to the chapel bell and find the monks and 
servants at prayers, kneeling on the stone floor of 
the cold and gloomy chapel. These noble, devoted 
men give themselves few comforts. 

We visit the dead house, a stone building near by. 
Here are kept the bodies of the unclaimed dead found 
by the dogs. Some have been there many, many 
years. The bodies are dressed just as they were found, 
and are propped about the room in every manner 
of fantastic attitude. In this cold, dry air, they do 
not decay, but crumble away by bits. 

The dogs leap and frisk as we approach the kennels. 
They are the finest fellows we have seen in the dog 
walk in life. They have shorter, less curly hair than 
St. Bernard dogs seen elsewhere. The original stock 
came from Spain. Their heads are large, limbs 
strong, and eyes so intelligent that we easily believe 
the stories told of their brave rescues. 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO SWITZERLAND. 61 

On stormy days they are impatient to be off on a 
search. Sometimes the snowdrifts are forty feet high, 
so that only a dog could find anyone buried in them. 
The dogs go in company with two skilled guides who 
are sent daily, one in either direction, to keep the paths 
clear and help anyone in distress. When the faithful 
animals find a traveler buried in the snow, they dig 




ST. BERNARD DOG. 



him out and hurry away to bring assistance. One 
dog returned to the hospice with a little boy on his 
back. The child was just able to cling to his rescuer. 
We breakfast with our fellow tourists in the refectory 
— a simple meal of rolls and coffee. Then we bid the 
monks a grateful farewell and start down the Pass, 
once more to enter the world of railroads. Everyone 
loves and reverences the monks of St. Bernard. They 



62 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO SWITZERLAND. 

live hard lives, labor constantly for others, and die 
unknown to the world. Thinking of their unselfish 
lives, we resolve to live more nobly ourselves in the 
days to come. 

BERNE. 

Berne, the capital of the Republic, is one of the 
handsomest cities of Europe. Many travelers visit it 
yearly to enjoy its beautiful scenery. The city is built 
upon a high promontory, one hundred feet above the 
river Aar. From here may be seen the mountains of 
the Bernese Alps, shining white and serene in the 
distance. 

Over seven hundred years ago this city was founded 
by a German Duke as a military stronghold. The story 
is that the Duke decided to name his town after the 
first wild beast caught in the forest. A bear was 
caught. So the name Berne, which means bear, was 
given to the place. 

The bear is the city's emblem, and for centuries 
bears have been kept at the public expense. This 
animal figures on coins, sign posts, public buildings, 
and in many other places. 

Berne is decorated with bears — live bears, stone 
bears, wooden bears and painted bears. We first visit 
the bear pit to see the live ones. They are rolling 
about in lazy comfort, while visitors gathered around 
the railing throw them goodies. The young cubs 
tumble over each other for the morsels. All feel very 
important, for they are protected by law even from 
improper food. Visitors are permitted to feed them 
only what is good for their health. 

We drink at the Kindlifrcsser (child devourer) 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO SWITZERLAND. 



63 



fountain. It is decorated with carved figures of bears. 
The central figure is a dreadful ogre, engaged in eating 




STREET IN BERNE, SHOWING OLD CLOCK TOWER. 

a baby. Babies lie all about, and stick from its pockets, 
waiting to be eaten. 

At noon we make a point of being in front of the 
remarkable clock with the long German name — the 



64 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO SWITZERL\ND. 

Zeitglockenthurm. It has a bear scene every noon. 
About twelve, a cock gives the alarm by flapping its 
wings. This is not a real cock, mind you. Then a troup 
of make-believe bears walks around the seated figure of 
an old man. As the hour strikes, the old man turns an 
hour glass and counts the hour with his scepter, 
opening his mouth as if speaking. Another queer 
figure holding a hammer strikes it on a bell twelve times. 
Then the cock crows again, and the performance is over. 

Having done our duty by the bears, we look about 
the town. The streets are as quaint as one will see in 
any old-world city. They have ancient arcades built 
along either side, forming roofs over the sidewalks. 
Under these cool, dark arcades all the busy life of the 
streets goes on. Here in booths shopkeepers display 
their wares. An odor of cheese fills the air. Berne is 
a great market for the famous Swiss cheeses, especially 
those from Gruyere, which sell all over the world. 
Fruits and vegetables sold at these arcade markets 
come from the large farms around Berne. 

Benches along the walls afford a retreat for the 
Bernese people. Old ladies sit here to knit, business 
men read their papers, smoking long, crooked pipes, 
children play, and young folk gossip. 

Milk carts drawn by dogs rumble by. Peasants 
from the country tramp through the arcades, baskets 
of vegetables strapped to their backs. Some carry 
large trays heaped with cheese. Others have cans of 
milk on their backs. Burden-bearing seems always to 
be frac/c-bearing. Even housekeepers are accompanied 
by little boys, each with a "hotte" for carrying pur- 
chases. No wonder so many people are stoop-shouldered. 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO SWITZERLAND. 65 

While in Berne, we visit the new Parliament Build- 
ings. Here the laws of the Republic are made. Let 
us see if we cannot understand how this is done. 

THE GOVERNMENT. 

We are proud of our land, because it is free and a 
Republic. But freedom in Switzerland was centuries 
old when George Washington was a baby. Switzer- 
land is the oldest republic now existing. It was a 
Swiss hero who cried, "Make way for liberty," as he 
died fighting for his country. 

In Switzerland the people have more power, the 
President has less, than in the United States. Still, 
our little sister Republic is governed somewhat as our 
own. In republics there must be a body of men to 
make the laws, and another to have the laws executed. 

In the United States, Congress makes the laws; in 
Switzerland, the Federal Assembly. 

In the United States, the President and the men who 
advise him (called the Cabinet) see that the laws are 
executed; in Switzerland, the Federal Council, com- 
posed of seven members, sees that the laws are carried 
out. This Federal Council elects one of its members, 
each year, to be President of the Republic ; another, to 
be Vice President. They hold office one year. Nor 
can they be re-elected until another year has passed. 

The President's salary is twenty-seven hundred 
dollars. 

The Federal Assembly — the law-making branch of 
the government — is divided into two Councils: the 
State Council, and the National Council. 

The State Council has forty-four members — two 



66 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO SWITZERLAND. 



from each canton. The National Council has one 
hundred and forty-seven members. 

As you may guess, there are interesting times when 
all these men get together. As every canton is repre- 
sented, three languages are spoken. We should like 




CAPITOL OF SWITZERLAND— BERNE 



to see them in session. This is what happens some- 
times : — 

A member from a German canton makes a speech in 
his native tongue. Up bobs a French Swiss to reply in 
French. Thereupon, a dark-eyed, black-headed little 
man "talks back" in Italian. 

They understand one another, though. They make 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO SWITZERLAND. 67 

laws about war and peace, and the telephone, telegraph 
and postal services; arrange for the coining of money 
(French coins are used in Switzerland) ; the protection 
of the forests ; the training of soldiers ; the building of 
roads and railways ; and for other matters of general 
interest. 

Swiss elections are held on Sundays. The people 
say they are too busy to vote on weekdays. Often 
elections are held in the churches. Sunday afternoon 
the church bell rings for the voters to assemble. They 
sit in the pews. When a man's name is called, he 
walks forward with his vote in a sealed envelope, to 
place it in the ballot box. • This sounds very solemn, 
but sometimes their behavior is not at all solemn — 
quite the contrary. 

In a few small cantons, voting is done in the open air. 
The people meet in the village market places, or in 
meadows. Women and children are there, also, 
although they cannot vote. These open-air elections 
are said to be very impressive. 

Tlie voters gather in a circle about the platform. 
An opening prayer is made, the men standing with 
bowed heads. Voting is done by raising hands. At 
the close, all join in a hymn. Then follows, very often, 
a picnic luncheon on the grass. Through many centu- 
ries the grand old mountains have looked down on 
these simple, open-air gatherings of a free people. 

Each canton, like a state in our Union, manages its 
own affairs. As our states are divided into counties, 
so each Swiss canton is divided into little districts 
called communes. 

Some things are owned in common by the people 



68 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO SWITZERLAND. 



of a commune — the forests, the pastures, and, in some 
communes, the land. The commune gives each family 
its share of fuel, and permits it to send a certain 
number of cattle to graze on the pastures — all free of 

charge. Where 
the commune 
owns the land, it 
sells small tracts 
to heads of fami- 
lies at a price with- 
in their means. 
In this way even 
poor peasants are 
able to own their 
homes. 

Berne has fam- 
ous hospitals, 
schools, museums, 
parks, drives, and 
beautiful bridges 
over the Aar 
River. It has a 
university and a 
splendid old ca- 
thedral. We take 
the electric car to 
the Gurten, a hill 
whence we seethe 
Bernese Alps to- 
ward the southeast. Their white line is broken by 
peaks famous for beauty or grandeur. 

Another excursion is to the beautiful old town of 




COSTUME OF THE CANTON OF BERNE 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO SWITZERLAND. 69 

Thun. Its castle on a wooded height is the central 
figure. There are castles and castles in Switzerland, 
but each has a beauty of its own. Luckily we have 
arrived on market day and may see the pretty costumes 
of the Bernese peasant girls. 

PEASANT COSTUMES. 

They wear gay colored skirts with black velvet 
bodices over white muslin waists. Sleeves and waists 
are tucked and starched. Silver chains are looped 
under the arms, fastening in front and in back with 
rosettes. Flaring straw hats complete the costume. 

The market is not so large as the one visited in 
Lausanne, but is even more picturesque. We buy 
flowers and wild mountain strawberries, and curios 
without number. People keep arriving from all di- 
rections with their dairy goods and garden supplies. 
Boats loaded with produce are thronging across the 
Lake of Thun. 

AWAY TO INTERLAKEN. 

We go by carriage along the northern shore of the 
Lake of Thun to Interlaken. The road, built of stone, 
is as smooth as a floor. We pass through five tunnels 
between Thun and Interlaken. And where can we 
see more beautiful views? (Not in the tunnels, to be 
sure, but between them.) Our eyes rest on mountains, 
gorges, forests, castles, waterfalls, and lakes which look 
like paintings by a master artist. The scenery is re- 
flected in the quiet water to the very leaves of the trees 
— even the birds see themselves as in a mirror. 

Presently we come in sight of Switzerland's loveliest 
peak, the Jungfrau. Its name means the Virgin. We 



70 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO SWITZERLAND. 



see it and lose it again behind nearer mountains, also 
its neighboring peaks, the Monk and the Eigher. 

Omnibuses now begin to roll by ; trains whistle ; auto- 
mobiles, carriages, pedestrians — all are going our way. 
We drive down a broad, shady avenue between rows 




Intereaken: Up the Vaeeey Rises the Jungfrau. 

O tell me, love, if this is Switzerland, 
Or is it but the frost-work on the pane. 

— T, B. Aid rich. 



of walnut trees, where people are promenading and 
listening to music. This is Interlaken. 

Our carriage stops at the entrance to a fine hotel. 
A porter in livery rushes out to take our luggage. 
Another assists us from the carriage. Several more lead 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO SWITZERLAND. 71 

the way within. Interlaken must be a very fashionable 
resort — so the porters make us feel. Swiss boys like 
to become hotel porters. They earn good wages, see 
different cities, and meet people from everywhere. So 
they learn fine airs that make them objects of envy 
to their old village playmates. We like Swiss hotel 
porters, in spite of their high manners, and we like 
Swiss guides even better. The latter are sturdy, brave 
fellows, always ready to lend a hand to help one, even 
at the risk of danger to themselves. 

At Interlaken is much show of fashionable dressing. 
Chamonix people wore plain clothing suitable for climb- 
ing. Here finely dressed tourists are on the Promenade, 
in the hotels, or at the Kursaal, a splendid cafe which 
faces the Jungfrau. White and radiant this peak 
gleams through an opening in the mountains, the one 
great sight of the place. 

We drink coffee at a table on the piazza of the 
Kursaal, and look at the moonlight turning the Jung- 
frau's snowy summit to silver, while the orchestra 
plays sweet music. Bells are ringing on the lake boats, 
people about us are talking in German, French, English, 
Dutch, Russian, or Italian, and gardens waft us fra- 
grant breezes. We should like to stay here the rest of 
the summer. 

A railroad is being built to the top of the Jungfrau. 
It is finished for only two-thirds of th'e whole distance, 
but the work is moving forward. This is one of the 
most daring attempts at railroad building set on foot 
in Switzerland. The work of building it is especially 
dangerous, for avalanches almost continually roll down 
the Jungfrau and the precipices are perilous. 



72 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO SWITZERLAND. 

Interlaken means "between lakes." It is built on 
a stretch of land between the Lake of Thun and the 
Lake of Brienz. We go by boat to Brienz, a town at 
the eastern end of the Lake of Brienz, which is noted 
for its wood-carving industry. It has a school for teach- 
ing wood-carving, where we see the pupils at work. 
They are learning to carve chairs, book racks, hat 
stands, parquetry, and wooden toys, such t as birds, 
bears, chamois, chalets and the like. Brienz wood- 
carving sells wherever any wood-carving sells, what- 
ever the country. In the villages of this region many 
are also engaged in making watches and clocks. 

LAUTERBRUNNEN. 

Lauterbrunnen is a short ride from Interlaken. It 
is a gem of a village set in a narrow valley, hedged 
in by mountains. So high are these mountain walls 
that in winter the sun is hardly seen at all. Even in 
July it does not rise until seven o' clock. Apart from 
the fine views of the Jungfrau, the Falls of Staubbach 
are the chief sight of interest at Lauterbrunnen. From 
a thousand feet above a small stream leaps downward, 
dashing into fine spray. The sunlight on the spray 
brings out all the colors of the rainbow. 

Let us take the "electro-funicular," a railroad up 
the mountain to a tiny hamlet high above Lauter- 
brunnen. The "electro-funicular" is run partly by 
electricity, partly by a moving cable. In places the 
car is lifted upward almost like an elevator. Thus we 
are drawn up to Muerren, the hamlet. It seems to be 
at the jumping-off place. 

The village is on an elevated point of land where 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO SWITZERLAND. 73 

chasms open round about. So great is the fury of the 
winter gales in this part that the house roofs have to 
be loaded with stones. Here we see glaciers and 
avalanches, snow fields and summits, with a nearness 
that makes them terrible. 

We stay all night at the hotel and hear the rush 
and roar of avalanches even in our dreams. Some- 
times it takes but a slight cause to start an avalanche 
— a footstep on the snow, a jingle of bells, a voice 
speaking a trifle loud, all have set these snow slides 
crashing down the mountain. Travelers who cross 
the mountains during winter storms tell of driving 
slowly and speaking only in whispers, from fear of 
starting a slide. Whole villages have been buried by 
these slides, forests destroyed, and countless lives lost. 

The Government has built defenses in places where 
avalanches occur regularly. Stone walls and tunnels 
are a common form of defense. Forests are the best 
protection. So the Government controls the forests, 
permitting no tree to be cut down without its sanction ; 
and a new tree mu^t always be planted when an old 
one is cut down. 

We are up early at Muerren to see the sun rise. We 
stand waiting in the cold gray morning, the awful 
silence of the hoary mountains making us shiver. 

Now begins the dawn. First appears a faint radiance 
in the east ; then a mingling of wonderful hues ; then — 
in an instant — the golden glory bursts upon the peaks, 
spreading from mountain top to mountain top, while 
we catch our breath with joy and wonder. Mr. Kipling 
has told us of daybreak in India, where — 
"The sun comes up like thunder. " 



74 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO SWITZERLAND, 



We know what he means now, for we almost hear the 
roar of thunder as the sunlight breaks on the mountains 
around Muerren. 

QRINDELWALD FARMS. 

Grindelwald is twelve miles from Lauterbrunnen, in 
a fertile valley over three thousand feet above the, sea. 

The Grindelwald 
folk are herdsmen 
and farmers. The 
little farms of this 
region are models 
of thrift and care- 
ful cultivation. 

On a small patch 
of land the peas- 
ant farmer must 
raise everything 
which his family 
needs, flax and 
hemp for clothing, 
food for all the 
year, and hay 
enough to last his 
cattle through the 
winter. This 
means toil night 
and day through the short summer season. Ex- 
cept those members of the family who go to the 
summer alps with the cattle, all must work in the 
fields — father, mother and children. 

Nothing must be wasted, nothing neglected. Every 




SWISS PEASANT. 



(On hie back is the "hotte," the receptacle in Switzerland 
for carrying burdens. 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO SWITZERLAND. 75 

scrap of manure is saved from stables, road, chicken 
houses, and pasture. Every potato must be dug; 
every blade of grass cut, even to the "wild grass" on 
high slopes, where the hay cutter risks his life to 
gather a few bundles of poor hay; every head of grain 
is harvested with an economy that seems miserly to 
American farmers. 

Potatoes, rye and oats are the chief crops, but 
vegetable gardens, and orchards of cherries, pears and 
apples are seen flourishing on some farms. The flax 
and hemp are spun into coarse material by the women 
folk, and made into clothing for the family. 

Their industry is no less in winter time, for the 
men work at some trade — such as making watches, 
clocks, carving wooden or ivory toys, and the like, 
while the women make lace, do embroidering, weave, 
spin, or knit. The children are sent to school seven 
months of the winter, but are trained to help in the 
work of house and dairy, or to add their mite towards 
earning a living, when not at their lessons. 

Plain fare, hard work, and close houses where the 
cattle, too, are lodged make many peasant families 
look careworn, stooped, and poorly nourished. They 
eat almost no meat, but abundance of dairy products, 
with coffee, bread and dried fruits. We stop at a 
pretty farm house and are given cups of cream in 
carved wooden bowls, which we admire. Then the 
housewife shows us with pride her wooden spoons with 
carved handles, and other bits of decorated household 
ware. Her husband does this work winters, and makes 
a tidy sum thereby. 

The house is spotlessly clean, with scrubbed pine 



76 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO SWITZERLAND, 



floor, substantial wooden tables and chairs, a white 
porcelain stove reaching almost to the ceiling and 
ribbed around with brass bands, and pictures of the 
Virgin and the saints on the walls. Every window has 
its shelf of plants, which grow in tin fruit cans. In 

one corner is the 
spinning wheel, 
where the grand- 
mother i s busy 
with her flax. 

One daughter 
and the youngest 
boy are in their 
summer chalet on 
the alps. The 
eldest son is in 
London, learning 
English ancl serv- 
ing as hotel porter 
at the same time. 
He is looked upon 
spinning. as an ornament 

to the. family. He no longer wears a homespun working 
blouse, like his father, nor does he even smoke his long 
pipe, but is splendid in a ready-made, tailored suit of 
clothes, which his simple relatives admire almost 
under their breaths. We think we should rather be 
the younger boy, living on the alps, dressed in a coarse 
blouse, and walking barefooted over the violets 
and pansies. 

Grindelwald is at the foot of two glaciers, in one of 
which a narrow tunnel has been cut, two hundred feet 




■--'< 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO SWITZERLAND. 77 

in length. We walk through this ice cavern and 
wonder whether we shall find at its end the old woman 
of whom we have read. When she sees tourists coming 
that way, she runs into the cavern to play on a jangling 
old zither and collect pennies for her performance. 

More than one Grindelwald citizen is after tourists' 
pennies. Tables and booths covered with articles for 
sale greet us at every turn. We could spend a fortune 
on Swiss souvenirs, but hurry away to see the Aar 
glaciers. 

Agassiz's hut was on the moraine of the Upper Aar 
glacier. Here he spent most of his time while studying 
glaciers, and here the huge boulder was found which 
marks his grave in Massachusetts. The glacier is 
eighteen miles long and about three miles wide. From 
it springs the Aar river, which we saw at Berne, and 
which is a tributary of the Rhine. 

Not far from here is the Rhone glacier. We go by 
mules across the Grimsel Pass to see this, the most 
marvelous glacier in Switzerland, perhaps in the 
world. We pass through scenery wild and desolate, 
climbing heights swept by cold winds. When we see 
the monster cataract of ice we are certain that Switz- 
erland has no greater work of nature to show us. 
Longfellow has well described it : 

" A frozen cataract, more than two thousand feet in 
height and many miles broad at its base. It fills the 
whole valley between two mountains, running back to 

I their summits. At the base it is arched like a dome; 
and above, jagged and rough, it resembles a mass of 
gigantic crystals of a pale emerald tint, mingled with 



78 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO SWITZERLAND . 



rent and crevice the pale green ice shines clear in the 



sun. 



From the foot of this glacier the Rhone river 
springs, to flow away through the Lake of Geneva and 
the southern part of France to the sea. 




RHONE GLACIER. 

LUCERNE. 

Lucerne, a quaint and historic little city, lies on the 
eastern shore of Lake Lucerne. On the west is Mount 
Pilatus; on the east, the Rigi. Of Lake Lucerne, 
some one has said that "the Lord might have made a 
lovelier lake, but He never did." 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO SWITZERLAND. 



79 



All the fashionable world seems taking a holiday at 
Lucerne. Pilatus and the Rigi look down upon a gay 
town. Lucerne has a population of 29,145, which in 
summer is enormously increased. 

The Promenade beside the lake is crowded with 
handsome equipages, ladies in Paris toilettes, and 
climbers in knickerbockers, with alpenstocks in hand 
and knapsacks on their backs. 

Lucerne has two ancient wooden bridges over the 
River Reuss. One was built nearly six hundred years 




mm 



OLD BRIDGE AT LUCERNE. 



ago. Both are covered and have on the inside walls 
a series of paintings by artists of a time long gone. 
We see the old, old tower, once a prison, but now con- 
taining a collection of relics. We visit the Hofkirche, 
or cathedral, and hear the great organ. The organist 
plays a selection which reproduces the sounds of a 
storm. We hear the thunder, the wind crashing 
through the trees, and almost see the vivid flashes of 



80 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO SWITZERLAND. 

lightning. These Swiss cathedrals all have fine organs, 
but the most noted one, perhaps, is that in the cathe- 
dral at Fribourg, a town southwest of Berne. 

THE LION OF LUCERNE. 

In a garden of Lucerne is the famous lion, a monu- 
ment made in memory of some brave Swiss soldiers 
who stood nobly by their posts in a time of danger. 
They formed the Swiss Guard which defended the 
French king, Louis XVI., when a mob of his own 
subjects attacked his palace during the French Revo- 
lution. The Swiss Guard stayed to protect the king 
long after the French soldiers had left him to his fate — 
and lost their lives for staying. The monument was 
designed by Thorwaldsen, the Danish sculptor, and 
represents a lion in the agony of death. It is cut from 
the face of a huge rock hollowed in the form of a cave. 
Water trickles down one side, forming a pool on the 
base, where pond lilies grow and shrubs overhang the 
water. The stone lion is thirty feet long. A dagger is 
plunged into its side, while its head sinks in pain and 
its paw lies protectingly over the shield of France. 
The lion symbolizes the courage of the Swiss soldiers; 
the shield of France refers to the king. Above the cave, 
in Latin, are the words : . 

"To the valor and fidelity of the Swiss." 

Beneath are written the names of the soldiers who 
perished. It is a most impressive monument, for all 
who look upon it feel the valor of the act which it 
commemorates. 

We remember that there was a disgraceful period in 
Swiss history, when the soldiers of the Republic were 



A. LITTLE JOURNEY TO SWITZERLAND. 



81 



willing to fight for any foreign power that paid them 
well. It made little difference what they fought for, so 
long as they received their price. Being good fighters, 
they were in great demand. It is said that a French 
soldier once sneeringly remarked to a Swiss: "The 
Swiss fight for money, but the French for honor. " 




THE LION OF LUCERNE 

"Yes," retorted the Swiss soldier, "we both fight 
for that which we do not possess." 

We climb the Rigi on the cog-wheel railroad. This 
little railroad is like those up Mount Washington and 
Pike's Peak at home. Midway between the rails of the 
track is a double rail, notched like teeth. On the 
engine is a wheel with cogs which fit into these notches 
of the middle rail. The cog-wheel, run by steam, 



82 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO SWITZERLAND. 

pushes the train up the track. Going up, the engine 
is at the rear of the train. Coming down, it goes ahead, 
to check the speed of the train. 

We think the engine a queer object, for it is tilted 
down at the front end and hoisted up at the back, like 
a camel on its knees. Perhaps it is broken? Oh, no; 
when we start up the mountain, the front end will be 
on a level with the back. That explains its shape. 
The seats, also, are tilted forward. When we sit on 
them, we think we shall fall upon the floor ; but when 
we are ascending the slopes, we find ourselves sitting 
level. 

The train travels at the rate of three miles an hour, 
making the trip to the top in an hour and a half. That 
is slow traveling; but we enjoy it, because it enables 
us to see the marvelous scenery. We creep over 
bridges swung high in air, through tunnels, past wild 
forests, sometimes skimming along a bridge over the 
tree tops. And now we wind along a narrow ledge, 
from which we see lakes and towns, far, far below. 
We pass a large hotel or two on the way, and see 
climbers at different points panting and struggling 
upward with the aid of their alpenstocks. 

The Rigi is but little over five thousand feet high. 
Yet the view from its summit is not surpassed in 
Switzerland. This is because the mountain stands 
apart, without surrounding mountains to cut off the 
view. At the Kulm, or summit, the temperature 
changes suddenly. When we reach there, it is so cold 
that we don overcoats and golf capes and hurry, shiv- 
ering, to the hotel. In half an hour the clouds break, 
the sun shines, and we are glad to exchange our wraps 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO SWITZERLAND. 



83 



for cotton shirt waists. Even on the top of the Rigi 
are the ever-present booths with souvenirs for sale. 
They are seen at different points on the way up, with 
business-like salesmen driving a brisk trade in toys, 

postal cards and bric-a- 
brac. 

There is a platform, 
reached by stairs, at the 
very tip-top of the Rigi, 
where one may see almost 
"all the kingdoms of the 
world and the glory of 
them/' spread out in the 
valleys below. We look 
through field glasses with 
colored lenses and see 
the view all red, or all 
yellow, or all green, just 
as we prefer. Better 
still, we view the land- 
scape without any 
glasses whatever. For 
three hundred miles round about it lies smiling in 
the sunshine. There is Lucerne; there Zurich; there 
are the towns between, how many we cannot say, for 
they look like one great, straggling city. We count no 
less than ten lakes, and trace rivers like white threads 
running through forest and farm land. Yonder, we 
see mountains with clouds chasing across their upper 
slopes. Old Pilatus covers his head with a cloud cap, 
and then, curious to see what we are up to, peeps out 
at a rent in the top. 




CATHEDRAL AT LUCERNE. 



84 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO SWITZERLAND. 

We stay over night at the Kulm to see the sun rise. 
While in Switzerland we are forever climbing moun- 
tains to see the sun rise. We leave our beds, half awake, 
and stand with chattering teeth in the cold of an early 
morning, feeling quite savage because we have had 
no breakfast. Then the day begins to break, and we 
forget ourselves. To see a sunrise in the Alps we 
would endure many hardships. 

WONDERFUL ROADS. 

Mount Pilatus has up its sides a railway which is 
thought to be the steepest in the world. The upper 
terminus is six thousand nine hundred feet above sea 




TUNNEL IN THE MOUNTAINS. 

level. The foundation of the road is solid masonry 
covered with granite slabs. Arches span the ravines. 
The train can be brought to a standstill any moment. 
The engine and one coach make up the train. 

Railroads penetrate nearly every part of Switzer- 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO SWITZERLAND. 85 

land. They follow the river valleys, cut through 
mountains, or climb over them. Their construction 
has taken many years, cost millions of dollars, and 
brought death to many poor fellows working on 
them. 

The St. Gothard railway is a famous road. It 
extends from Lucerne to the Italian lake region south 
of the Alps. Ten years were required to build it. 
The road has fifty-six tunnels, cut through the solid 
granite rock, and numerous bridges so strongly made 
that an earthquake would hardly break them. The 
scenery along this line is one beautiful view after 
another. At Goeschenen begins the great St. Gothard 
tunnel — the longest tunnel in the world. It extends 
nine and a half miles, to Airolo, is twenty-six and a 
half feet wide, and over nineteen feet from the floor to 
the arch of the roof. Nine years were spent in building 
it. Work was begun at both ends at the same time, so 
that the engineer's plans had to be most exact. On 
February 28, 1880, the middle of the tunnel was 
reached. That was a great day, when the Swiss 
workmen from the north end and the Italian workmen 
from the south blasted the thin wall of rock 
remaining between them. 

We have been on the electro-funicular road to 
Muerren, up the cog-wheel road of the Rigi, have seen 
the one up Pilatus, and heard of the one being built up 
the Jungfrau. There is still another wonderful railroad 
— the Gonergrat — which starts at the village of Zer- 
matt and ascends almost 11,000 feet up the mountains 
"into a world of ice." We shall see this road. 

The noblest carriage road ever made by man runs 



86 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO SWITZERLAND. 



from Lucerne to Fluelen, a town at the southern end 
of Lake Lucerne. It is of solid masonry, with not a 
pebble to mar its smooth stone bed. Where it skirts 
the lake, it is bordered by stone parapets. Tunnels at 
numerous points have great arched openings in the 



and mountains in the lake — for the clear, smooth 
water reflects its mountain walls as in a glass. This 
king of roads is called the Axenstrasse. There are a 
number of fine carriage roads in these lake regions and 
through the Jura section of Switzerland. 



kB I^H^^^r i ' ' "' - «uHi 


R- f> i V. | in 






S* P^TfcS^/i^S 


Hi 


i 9 H 


vk^%i 




AXENSTRASSE ROAD. 


side, through which 


may be seen lake and mountains — 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO SWITZERLAND. 87 

PILATUS. 

Mount Pilatus is the weather prophet of Lucerne. 
It is believed by some of the natives that the shape of 
the clouds on its summit foretells the weather. A 
round cloud, like a cap, indicates good weather ; a 
long, sword-shaped one, pointing towards Lucerne, 
means rain. Tourists are always watchful of these 
clouds, to see whether Pilatus really knows his business 
as he should. 

Besides having the power to prophesy, Pilatus has 
a ghost — or did have, before men laid it by climbing 
to the summit. People believed that Pontius Pilate's 
ghost dwelt on the mountain top and stirred up all the 
storms of that region. 

The legend is that Pontius Pilate, after he left 
Galilee, was imprisoned in Rome. There he com- 
mitted suicide, and his body was thrown into the Tiber 
River]! The Tiber angrily cast the corpse upon the 
shore. Then it was thrown into the Rhine, which also 
refused to keep it. At last it was taken to a little 
lake on the top of Pilatus. There it remained and 
stirred up storms on Fridays. Why on Fridays? 
Our New Testaments may tell us. People were for- 
bidden by law to visit the top on that day. But the 
ghost was laid long ago by a young German, who 
climbed to the top for that purpose. How do people 
lay ghosts? We really think there is no way, except 
by refusing to believe in them. Now a little train 
steams up this mountain several times a day, in 
summer. 

Lake Lucerne is called the Lake of the Four Cantons, 
because it is surrounded by the cantons of Lucerne, 



88 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO SWITZERLAND. 



Uri, Schwyz, and Unterwalden. The last three are 
the historic " forest cantons." 

Like all pilgrims to this part, we take a steamboat to 
visit the scenes of William TelTs exploits. Schiller, 




MODERN MOUNTAIN CLIMBING. 

the German poet, has put TelPs story into a drama, 
which has been played on the stage. There are many 
versions of the legend. Here is the oldest one: — 

WILLIAM TELL. 

William Tell lived in the canton of Uri at the time 
when Austrian governors were oppressing the people. 
He was one of the bravest of the mountaineers who 
took the oath of freedom at Rutli — a strong, daring 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO SWITZERLAND. 89 

man, who could do no end of things better than any- 
body else. Archery was his chief accomplishment. 
The skill with which he shot arrows would have made 
an American Indian envious. 

Gessler was one of the tyrannical Austrian gov- 
ernors. He was so insolent that he even wanted the 
people of the forest cantons to bow to his cap. He* 
ordered it set up in the market place of Altorf , so that 
every one passing it might bow before it "as though 
the lord were there. " 

"And he who did it not" (reads the old record), 
"him he would punish and cause to repent heavily. 
And the servant was to watch and tell of such an one. " 

Tell refused point blank to bow before the cap, and 
was taken before Gessler. Gessler ordered him to be 
imprisoned, but offered him his freedom if he would 
shoot an apple from his son's head. Gessler wanted to 
see some of this famous archery ; secretly, he thought 
that this was one time when Tell would hit the wrong 
mark. 

Poor Tell tried to escape the test, for he loved his 
boy dearly and feared that his skill would fail him, with 
the child's life at stake; but Gessler stood firm. The 
boy was bound to a tree and an apple placed on his 
head, while the father was stationed at a distance. 
Tell put an arrow in his quiver and another arrow "he 
took in his hand, and stretched his crossbow, and 
prayed God that he might save his child, and shot the 
apple from the child's head. " 

When the excitement was over, Gessler asked Tell 
why he had put the extra arrow in his quiver. When 
Tell hesitated to reply, Gessler said : 



90 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO SWITZERLAND, 



" Tell me the truth; I will make thy life safe and not 
kill thee/' 

The archer cried out that, had he shot his boy, he had 
planned to kill Gessler with the other arrow. Gessler 
fell into a terrible rage and ordered Tell bound and 
placed in a boat with himself and his attendants. The 
prisoner was to be thrown into a dungeon at Kussnacht. 
Having promised to spare TelPs life, Gessler had to 




TELL'S CHAPEL. 



keep his word, but he swore that the prisoner should 



" never more see sun or moon." 



The boat started across the lake, but a storm came 
up and threatened to swamp it. Tell had to be un- 
bound, as he was the only one on board able to steer 
them safely to shore. Now was his chance to escape! 
Steering carefully toward a flat rock on the shore, 
he leaped from the boat upon the stone, pushed the 
craft from the shore, and made off through the thicket. 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO SWITZERLAND. 91 

Gessler and his crew had a hard time to make the 
land again. We may imagine Gessler's wrath. Mean- 
while, Tell hid in a hollow and awaited the passing 
of the party. At their approach he drew his bow and 
shot Gessler in the heart. So there was one less tyrant 
to trouble the Swiss. 

We steam down the lake, past the scenes of this 
story. Mountains rise from the shore, in places almost 
perpendicular. These mountains make Lake Lucerne 
the lovely bit of water that it is. We pass Brunnen, 
where the men of the forest cantons met to form the 
compact of August, 1291. At Tellsplatte is a charming 
little chapel dedicated to Tell. It has four large 
frescoes on its walls illustrating the chief events in 
his story. Religious services are sometimes held in 
the little chapel. At another point on the shore is 
a towering rock, bearing an inscription in memory 
of Schiller, the German poet who celebrated Tell's 
deeds in a drama. 

Across the lake from Tellsplatte is Rutli, where the 
oath to live and die for freedom was taken by tha 
men of the Three Forest Cantons. 

We go to Altorf , at the southern end of the lake, and 
see the market place where the shooting occurred. 
Here Tell is said to have stood when he shot the apple 
from his son's head; here is a fountain marking the 
place where it is believed that the boy was stationed. 
Two statues of Tell are in the market place. The 
larger one is a splendid bronze piece, representing 
Tell with his little son beside him descending from the 
mountains. The statue was placed here in 1895. 

Historians say that there never was a real William 



92 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO SWITZERLAND. 



Tell; that the story is only a legend; but the Swiss 
believe in their hero. Every year they hold a great 
festival in his honor, at which all the towns around 

Lake Lucerne 
take part. The 
people meet at 
Fluelen, gather- 
ing by hundreds, 
so that the lake 
boats are loaded 
with passengers. 
Then they form 
in line and 
march toAltorf, 
with banners 
and flags flying, 
music playing, 
and people sing- 
ing. The women 
all wear the 
pretty costumes 
of their cantons, 
and every one 
is decked with 
wreaths of flow- 
ers. 

Altorf is gor- 
geously decorat- 
ed with bunt ing, 
flags, garlands 
and wreaths. 
statue of tell. Its people form a 




A LITTLE JOURNEY TO SWITZERLAND. 93 

splendid procession and go out to meet the crowds 
marching from Fluelen — friars in their dark gowns, 
nuns from the convent, school children singing, guilds 
of workmen in their uniforms — all advance to meet 
their guests, chanting and carrying garlands. At the 
church in Altorf the Bishop blesses the multitude and 
holds mass in memory of Tell. 

THE PEOPLE— AMUSEMENTS. 

The Swiss hold many festivals and historical pro- 
cessions in celebration of great events. Every com- 
munity seems to have its special anniversary festival, 
in which all the people take part. At such times may 
best be seen the old-time peasant costumes in all their 
bravery of silver chains, rosettes, and peculiar head 
gear. 

Music, also, is dear to the Swiss heart, and so each 
village has its singing club. A national musical assem- 
bly is held at stated periods, first in one city, then in 
another, to which delegates from these local clubs are 
sent. Then may one hear chorus singing to make 
the heart glad ! Voices — thousands of them — ring out 
the national anthems, until the audience goes wild 
with applause. Some of the national airs are herds- 
men's songs, full of the hearty life of the mountaineers, 
with stirring " yodelled " choruses. 

Village rifle shooting clubs are as numerous as the 
music clubs. So are all kinds of athletic associations, 
as the people are interested in every form of manly 
exercise, but especially in wrestling. 

The Turnfest (or National Athletic Sports) occurs 
every three years. The celebration is held each time 



94 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO SWITZERLAND. 

in a different city. Every athletic club of the country 
sends picked men to compete for the prizes which are 
offered for boxing, fencing, leaping, running, swim- 
ming, wrestling, stone-lifting, dancing, exercises with 
clubs and parallel bars, and so on. 

As many as five thousand athletes have competed at 
one time. They are strong, lithe fellows, from every 
station in life. Whether they are farmers, herdsmen, 
clergymen, bankers, lawyers, or shopkeepers, makes 
no difference; all are good comrades out for a jolly 
time. The city entertaining the Turnfest builds great 
barracks on the athletic grounds, where the contestants 
eat and sleep. Each club has its banner and special 
badge for the members. When the thousands gather 
at the long tables in the barrack dining hall, each 
club grouped around its own banner, the scene is a gay 
one. Flags fly, bands play, and hearty voices shout in 
unison, with a merry clatter of cups and plates. 

The Turnfest always opens with a long procession of 
all the athletes, and closes with a general field exercise 
that is as fine as any great military review. The hope 
of sometime being able to compete at the Turnfest 
stirs many a Swiss school boy to make the most of his 
gymnasium practice. 

The Swiss like to live in villages rather than in cities. 
They like to know and help one another, a plan which 
is not always possible in cities. Their favorite motto 
is " Each for all, and all for each. " They live together 
on the summer pastures, gather their grape or hay 
harvests together, hull their walnuts or roast their 
chestnuts at "bees" like our old-time husking bees; 
and do their washings together at the village fountain. 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO SWITZERLAND. 



95 



Their homes are simply furnished, with no carpets, 
and almost no pictures. This is not true, of course, of 
the wealthy class, who dwell in such comfort as is 
possible for the rich in any civilized country. But the 




INTERIOR OF SWISS HOME. 

average Swiss home has little luxury in it. Two 
objects we almost always find — a great white porcelain 
stove and an old-fashioned loom. Some of the oldest 
styles of these stoves are seven or eight feet high, and 
have little stairways up to the top, where is a small 



96 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO SWITZERLAND. 

space, screened by a curtain, forming a room some six 
feet square. That must be a good place for the children 
to toast their toes when they come home from school. 
The loom is used to weave linen or silk goods. 

Strangers are always welcomed cordially in these 
homes, and given the best the house affords. One 
may be invited to share the meal, when but one large 
dish stands on the table, from which each one eats 
with a spoon. This is not considered a discourtesy 
to the guest — the discourtesy would be on our part, if 
we refused their simple hospitality. 

Weddings, picnics and dances are always on Sunday. 
The Swiss are a deeply religious people, but see no 
harm in making Sunday a day of pleasure. They 
enjoy dancing best of all their pleasures, but the 
communes fix the number of dances that may be 
given and the hour when each must close. So the 
young folk are not indulged too much in their favorite 
amusement. 

One of the most noticeable traits of the Swiss people 
is their love of home and kindred. When children go 
out into the world to earn a living, even to foreign 
lands, they always send home a portion of their wages, 
however meager, to help parents, brothers and sisters. 
The parents, in turn, give their children the best 
training and education at their command. They teach 
them to be truthful, to depend upon themselves, to 
love honesty and industry, to help others, and to be 
polite to everyone. We never meet these little men 
and women that they do not greet us with a cheery 
" adieu" or "guten tag." 

All Swiss parents seem to agree with one of their 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO SWITZERLAND. 



97 



SF^T"- 



army officers, who said: 
"Every boy and girl 
ought to be taught a bread- 
winning handicraft ; t o 
shoot straight (if a boy); 
to nurse (if a girl) ; and to 
know and do their duty to 
their neighbors and their 
God." 

ZURICH. 

The largest city in Swit- 
zerland is situated on the 
northern shore of the Lake 
of Zurich, just where the 
River Lim- 
at fl o w s 
from the 
lake. 

Zurich is 
an historic 
old city. 
The Rom- 
ans of long 
ago called 
it Turicum. 

It was a sturdy Protestant town during the Refor- 
mation, and gave a home .to many people exiled 
from their native land for holding the Protestant 
faith. Here the first English translation of the Bible, 
by Miles Coverdale, was printed in 1535; and here 
lived the great Swiss patriot and preacher, Zwingli. 

The city is in a fertile valley, the low hills of which 




WASHING AT THE FOUNTAIN. 



98 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO SWITZERLAND. 

are covered with vineyards to the foot of the mountains, 
not far distant. Fine views of this lovely valley may 
be had from the city terraces, or from the Uetliberg, a 
near-by mountain, which is ascended by a railroad. 

Zurich has a metropolitan appearance, with its 
broad boulevard, its promenade along the quays, its 
fine squares and massive buildings. The lake is astir 
with steamboats and barges, the hotels and cafes are 
full of people, and the shops attract crowds of cus- 
tomers who come here to buy Zurich silks. 

We visit the Grossmunster, where Zwingli preached, 
" thundering the wrath of heaven" against evil doers. 
He was a brave defender of the right, and worked espe- 
cially hard for one national reform — the overthrow of 
the custom whereby Swiss soldiers fought for pay, 
selling their services to other nations. 

We see the ancient Guild Houses, where members 
of the various trades and crafts of Zurich used to meet. 
Zurich has a population of 150,239, and it seems as 
if each one of all these people belonged to some club. 
Music clubs are particularly numerous. One of the 
music clubs is several hundred years old. The German 
musician, Wagner, lived in Zurich a number of years, 
and here composed his beautiful opera — Lohengrin. 

The largest and oldest industry in Switzerland has its 
center in Zurich. That is, the manufacturing of silk 
goods. Since the thirteenth century, Zurich silks have 
been in the forefront of the world's silk markets. Raw 
silk is brought both from Italy and far-off China. 
Perhaps the bit of silk on one's best gown has trav- 
eled from China, across the Pacific, across the United 
States, across the Atlantic, across France — to Zurich, 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO SWITZERLAND. 99 

there to be made into goods which take another 
long journey back again to the United States. 

Factories keep up a big humming in the city, while 
almost every house of every village round about is 
a-whirr with the looms of the silk weavers. Cotton, 
linen, and woolen goods are made also. Where do the 
Zurich people buy their raw cotton? And the flax for 
their linen? Even machinery is manufactured here — 
not an easy task, for all the coal and iron must be 
imported from distant countries. 

Thus we see a little country, without food enough 
for its people, without minerals (the Alps may be rich 
in iron, but the expense of working it would be too 
great to pay), without a seaport, and without natural 
routes of travel. Yet we see this small country over- 
coming every obstacle and winning at last a place 
among the most prosperous nations of Europe. 

Zurich is noted for its schools. The University is 
attended by men and women not alone from Switzer- 
land, but even from Russia, Germany, England and 
the United States. A famous school of science here 
is the Federal Polytechnic. We remember that 
Pestalozzi, the teacher at Yverdon, was born in 
Zurich. The library and the museums have a number 
of memorials of him and of Zwingli. 

We take a brief trip to Appenzell, southeast of 
Zurich, to buy some of the Appenzell embroidery, 
which has as wide a reputation as Gruyere cheese and 
Zurich silks. We visit the school at which girls are 
taught to make this beautiful embroidery and lace. 

Then we are off, by way of Lucerne, to take the St. 
Gothard railway through the Swiss-Italian canton of 
L.ofC. 



100 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO SWITZERLAND. 

Tessin. Here we pass the vineyards and the groves of 
figs and chestnuts, which are the chief growths of 
this canton. 

Finally, we .turn our faces toward Zermatt. 

ZERMATT— THE MATTERHORN. 

This village is in a valley five thousand three hundred 
and fifteen feet above sea level, where mountains white 
with snow and ice crowd around it, with Monte Rosa 
and the Matterhorn overshadowing all. 

The Matterhorn rises from a bed of glaciers like 
a pyramid, being fourteen thousand seven hundred and 
five feet high. It is like no other peak in form, having 
precipices so steep that for ages no man dared ascend it. 
Mont Blanc was scaled in 1786; the Jungfrau, in 1811 ; 
Monte Rosa, in 1851. Still, no one had mastered the 
Matterhorn. It was named the " Fiend of the Alps." 

On July 13, 1865, Mr. Edward Whymper, an English- 
man, finally reached the top. He was accompanied by 
three young English friends and three skilled guides. 
Before this, he had made seven attempts to reach the 
summit, each unsuccessful. This time he made the 
most careful preparations. Each of the party had 
already climbed the more difficult Swiss peaks. So they 
felt hopeful of success, being many in number and able 
to help one another. 

They spent a night on the mountain and began 
climbing 'in the early morning. Good headway was 
made until they reached an altitude of about fourteen 
thousand feet. From there on the precipice rises in 
an almost straight line. Its face was so slippery with 
ice and snow that the slightest misstep here would 



A LITTLE JOURNEY TO SWITZERLAND. 



101 



mean destruction. With the greatest difficulty they 
crept upward, but at a little past one o'clock in the 
afternoon, Whymper and the guide, Croz, reached the 
top together. 

The ascent was successful; the descent, fatal. They 
started down the fearful precipice, with Croz leading. 
A rope held them together, single file. Whymper 




CROWN OF THE MATTERHORN 



and the two remaining guides were at the other end of 
the line, while Whymper's friends followed Croz. 

At a certain point on the precipice, Croz turned to 
help Hadow, the young Englishman behind him. 
Suddenly Hadow slipped, knocked against Croz, and 
both fell head foremost. 

Instantly Whymper and the two guides at the far 



102 A LITTLE JOURNEY TO SWITZERLAND. 

end of the line braced themselves to hold the rope 
tight — but to no purpose. In a flash, Croz and Hadow 
had dragged down with them the two Englishmen 
behind Hadow. For but a moment of time the four 
hung suspended over the brink of the precipice. Then 
they disappeared over its edge, while Whymper and 
the two other guides watched them slip from sight. 

Stricken with horror, the three survivors clung to 
the rock and dared not move. An hour passed while 
they hung to their dangerous foothold, trembling with 
terror. Finally they summoned courage to move. 
Slowly and fearfully they crept downward, peering 
about for their lost companions. But the four had 
fal en thousands of feet to the glacier below. 

The ascent of the Matterhorn has since been made 
easier by cutting steps in the rock and providing ropes 
and hand rails to steady the climbers. But the peak, 
for all that, is still the " Fiend, " which may take x)ne's 
life if he have not steady nerves, stout heart, and 
level head. 

Our journey ends with Zermatt. We return home, 
leaving much of this mountain land unexplored. To 
see all its interesting nooks and historical spots would 
require many summer sojourns in Switzerland; but we 
have seen enough to make us admire the people of 
this little republic, remember forever the glory of their 
Alps, and wish them six hundred more years — and 
twice six hundred — of free government. 

And now, away with alpenstocks, hob-nailed shoes, and 
knapsacks. Pack the music boxes, toy chalets, carved 
clocks, and Appenzell embroidery. We must hasten 
on, for there are many countries yet to visit in Europe. 






TEACHER'S SUPPLEMENT. 



A Little Journey to Switzerland. 

The class, or travel club, has now completed the study of Switzer- 
land and is ready for a review. In order to make this interesting, let 
the work be summed up in the form of an entertainment called— 

AN AFTERNOON OR EVENING IN SWITZERLAND. 

For the afternoons abroad, given as geography reviews, or as a 
part of the Friday afternoon exercises, invitations may be written 
out by the pupils, or mimeographed or hectographed, and carried to 
friends and parents. 

If given as an evening entertainment and illustrated by stereop- 
ticon views, handbills may be printed and circulated, at least a week 
beforehand. The following form may be used: — 

SCHOOL ENTERTAINMENT. 

A TRIP TO SWITZERLAND FOR FIFTEEN CENTS. 

You are invited by the pupils of the , school (or the 

members of the Travel Class or Club) to spend an evening (or after- 
noon) in Switzerland. 

The party starts promptly at 1:30 p. m. (or 8 p. m.) the . 

Those desiring to take this trip should secure tickets before the 
day of sailing, as the party is limited. Guides are furnished 
free. 

The proceeds of this entertainment are to be used in the purchase 
of a library and pictures for the school. 



104 teacher's supplement. 

Geographies, books of travel, magazine articles and newspapers 
should be consulted until each pupil has his subject well in hand. 
He should also, where possible, secure photographs, pictures or 
objects with which to illustrate his talk. At its close these should 
be placed upon a table, or the chalk tray, that visitors may examine 
them more closely. 

If the entertainment is given in the evening, the teacher may be 
able to use stereopticon views. 

These will prove a very great attraction to both pupils and 
parents, and should be secured, if possible. The lantern with oil 
lamp may be easily operated by the teacher while the pupils give 
the descriptions of the pictures or give talks about the country. 

The lantern and slides may be rented for the evening or after- 
noon at reasonable rates, and the cost covered by an admission fee 
of from ten to twenty-five cents. 

A leader or guide may be appointed to make the introductory 
remarks, and to announce the numbers of the programme. 

Other pupils speak of the journey to Switzerland, the people, 
industries, plant and animal life, scenery and social features of the 
country. 

SUGGESTIONS. 

For the afternoon exercises have the blackboards decorated with 
Swiss flowers, the Alpine rose and edelweiss. The souvenir pro- 
grammes may be decorated with the same flowers. 

Across the center of the front blackboard write in large letters 
"The playground of Europe, the Workshop of the Swiss." Over it 
place a picture of the President of Switzerland, Dr. Joseph Zemp, 
and flags of the Republic. A small picture of the President may 
be found in the June, 1902, number of the Bay View Magazine. 

On the lower part of the board sketch mountains and the figure of 
a youth climbing the mountains with a banner in his hand. Upon 
the banner print the word "Excelsior." A picture of a chalet, a 
chamois, and a St. Bernard dog may also be given places upon the 
board. 

A cuckoo clock might be given a prominent place in the room, and 
under it a table, on which are placed articles of Swiss workmanship 



SCHOOL ENTERTAINMENT. 105 

or productions, as carved boxes, vases, knives, watches, laces, 
embroideries, Alpen stocks, chamois skin, cans of condensed milk, 
cheese, music boxes, leather goods. 

Colored photographs or souvenir postal cards, showing the bril- 
liant coloring of the water, sky and foliage, will prove of interest. 

Pupils in national costume of Switzerland may give a short flag 
drill with Swiss flags, or sing one or more of the national airs. Have 
a chalet horn for the occasion if possible. It may be used a little 
distance from the school building at first, so that the notes may come 
faintly to those in the room. 

It may be answered by a group of singers, with a yodel, and 
both the call and answer repeated. This may be followed by a 
Swiss warble or yodel song with echo, or by the "Chalet Horn." 

"The Alpine Horn" may be given either as a song or recitation 
by a boy in hunter' s costume, and carrying an Alpine Horn. 

COSTUMES. 

SWISS PEASANT. 

The short skirt of this pretty costume is made of blue merino. 
The jacket is made of black velveteen, with full vest of white veil- 
ing, and trimming of blue merino cut in tnree points at the top and 
buttoned on to the bodice with silver buttons. Band of embroidery, 
with silver chains and ornaments. Sleeves of veiling. Apron of 
linen, finished with a band of insertion. Cap of velveteen, edged 
with lace. 

TYROLESE COSTUME. 

Gray woolen fabric is used for the skirt and waist of this costume, 
while dark-red velvet is used for the bodice and decoration, in con- 
nection with gilt braid. The hat is of velvet and is trimmed with the 
braid and a lace rosette. The apron is of white woolen goods decor- 
ated with velvet and gold embroidery. Gray stockings and patent- 
leather shoes with gold buckles complete the costume. 

ALPINE SHEPHERD. 

Blue jean, drilling, flannel or any other fabric preferred may be 
used for this costume. A leather belt is about the waist and a horn 
i:» suspi nded from the shoulder by a leather strap. The tall white 



106 teacher's supplement. 

hat is decorated with narrow ribbon bands and a peacock's feather. 
White stockings and leather shoes are worn, and a shepherd's crook 
is carried. 

SHEPHERD BOY. 

This costume is composed of a blue flannel shirt and trousers. 

Red suspenders, stockings and hat, and buckskin shoes. The hat 

is ornamented by a single heron's plume. A horn and whip are 
carried. 

WILLIAM TELL. 

Jacket of slate-colored satin fastened round the waist by a brown 
leather belt, and tied down the front with ribbons, with a small puf- 
fing of white between each tie. The sleeves are slashed and puffed 
at the shoulder and elbow. Scarlet satin trunks slashed with white. 
Crimson satin tights. Long cloak of brown cloth. Crimson satin 
cap with a feather in it. Cross-bow carried on the shoulder. Low 
shoes, strapped across the instep. 

SONQS. 

National Song of Switzerland, Little Journey. 
The Swiss Maid, Little Journey. 
The Merry Swiss Boy, Little Journey. 

The Alpine Hunter, the Secilian Series of Study and Song, Sil- 
ver & Burdett, Pub. Book 3. 

The Swiss Maid, " " » Book 3. 

Land of Freedom, " " " Book 3. 

Tyrolese Folk Song, " " » Book 3. 

'Neath Foreign Skies, " h Book 3.' 

By Rail, " " " Book 3. 

Switzerland, " " " Book 2. 

Tyrolese Song, from Choice Songs. 
The Alpine Shepherd, Morning Bells. 
The Alpine Horn, Fountain Song Book No. 3. 
The Hunters Song, Fountain Song Book No. 3. 
Switzerland. Songs of the Nation. 
Switzer's Song of Home, Franklin Square, No. 2. 



SCHOOL ENTERTAINMENT. 107 

The Jolly Swiss Lad, School Library of Song, No. 1, Ginn & Co. 

The Best Land, " " " " " 

Thou My Country, « " " " " 

In Switzerland, Gems of School Songs, American Book Co. 

Happy Land, Fountain Song Book, No. 3. 

Stand Firm, Fatherland. 

Dear Home Land. 

The Battle of St. Jacob. 

The Triumph of Liberty. 

Eckert's Swiss Song. 

The Chalet Horn. 

The Mountain Goat Herd, in Songs of Happy Life. 

POEMS. 

Mont Blanc, H. Morford. 
My Alpenstock, H. G. Bell. 
Berne, M. Arnold. 

Lake Leman and Chillon, H. Morford. 
Mount Pilatus, E. Arnold. 
Song of St. Bernard, T. B. Read. 
The Death of Winkelried, U. Thornburg. 

The above poems may be found in Longfellow's Poems of Places, 
Vol. XVI. 

Excelsior, Longellow. 
The Alpine Horn, E. J. Lacer. 
The Mountain Boy, J. L. Uhland. 
The Prisoner of Chillon, Lord Byron. 
William Tell, William C. Bryant. 
Monument at Lucerne, John Kenyon. 
Switzerland, G. Von Anersperg. 

READINGS. 

William Tell, Baldwin's Third Reader. 
Mount Saint Bernard, Normal Third Reader. 
Legend of Bregenz, Stepping Stones, Fifth Reader. 
Glaciers of the Alps. Johonnot's Geographical Reader. 
Formation and Movement of Glaciers, Hymn to Mount Blanc. 
Passage of St. Bernard by Napoleon, Johonnot's Geog. Reader. 
The Slide at Alpnach, Johonnot's Nat. Hist. Reader. 



NATIONAL SONG OF SWITZERLAND. 

Moderate. 



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To Swiss, in stran - ger's land, sing ne'er 



His 



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nioun - tain dit 



ties fresh and fair, 



Or 



;p=p^ 



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tear 



drops thou'lt see 



fall 



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heart with pain 



Will 



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long 



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all the strain's re - call 



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du - li bi - la ho, 



da - li bi - la ho, la 



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da - li bi - la ho, la da - li bi - la ho. ja 



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THE SWISS MAID. 



Parlante. 



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Sr~* 






A simple mountain maid am I, From Switzer-land I come; Tho' 
To Pa -ris I some-time have been, Where ev'ry one's so fine; But, 
Then soon I left the heartless throng, To England next I roved; They 
To It - a - ly I took, my way, O land of joy and light! 'Mid 



EE^ 




man - y plac -es 
lone -ly 'mid the 



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flow 




I have seen, Yet none are like my home. O 

gid - dy scene, For home my heart did pine. O 

did not un - der-stand my song, And scorned the strains I loved. O 

>w'rs and smiles this heart was gay, I car - oled day and night. O 



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Switzerland, O love- ly land! Al -tho' thy heights are robed with snow; O 
Switzerland, O love- ly land! Than the world thy snows are far less cold; O 
Switzerland, O love- ly land! *} Fashion's smiles are like thy snows; O 
Switzerland, O love- ly land! A - gain I come, dear home, to thee; O 




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111 



Switzer-land, O love - ly land! Warm hearts are in thy vales be-low. 

Swit-zer-land, O love - ly land! All that glit - ters is not gold. 

Swit-zer-land, O love- ly land! With thee this heart would fain repose. 

Swit zer-laud, O love - ly land! More dear than all art thou to me. 



-N-- 



118 



THE MERRY SWISS BOY. 



il 



Lively. 



-A R- 



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i. Come, a - rouse thee, a - rouse thee, my brave Swiss boy, Take thy 

2. Am not I, am not I a mer-ry Swiss boy, When I 

3. Then at night, then at night, oh, a gay Swiss boy. I'm a- 



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pail 
hie 
way 



at 



and tola-bor a -way! The sun is up with rud- dy beam, The 
to the mountain a- way? For there a shepherd maid-en dear A- 
to my comrades, a - way! In friendship sweet the time is passed, With 

fcz£±£ ri r=t:fc=s — k — j_cc= ^-* 1 1 - 

r 1 1 — |-p — * — ^ ==? = 



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kine are thronging to the stream; Come, a-rouse thee, a-rouse thee, my 
waits my song with list -'ning ear: Am not I, am not I a mer- 
round and catch, un-til at last With good-night, and good -night, goes the 

"-si - r^ 

.-#■#■ m ■ #- ■#■. g ■#• ■#- ■•- 



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KW • #~-J 1 #-7 — •— h* •—*■ — * m *-r — m 1 H 



brave Swiss boy, Take thy pail and to la - bor a - way! 
ry Swiss boy, When I hie to the moun- tain a - way? 
gay Swiss boy To his home and his slum-bers a - way! 



SCHOOL ENTERTAINMENT. Ill 

AN AFTERNOON IN SWITZERLAND. 

PROGRAMME. 

1. Introduction. 

2. Recitation "Switzerland." 

3. Song, ' 'Switzerland. 

4. Basel. 

5. Chalets. 

6. Glimpses of the Country. 

7. Story of Arnold Von Winkleried. 

8. Song, "Land of Freedom." 

9. Neuchatel. 

10. Education. 

1 1 . Recitation, ' 'Excelsior. ' ' 

12. Lausanne. 

13. Vineyards. 

14. Tableau, "Swiss Peasants." 

15. Song, "The Swiss Maid." 

16. Geneva and its Beautiful Lake. 

17. Castle of Chillon, Story. 

18. Recitation or Reading, "The Prisoner of Chillon. " 
19 t Festival of Vintage. 

20. Alpine Post Ride. 

21. Song, "The Alpine Horn. " 

22. Recitation, "The Mountain Boy. " 

23. Tableau, "Alpine Shepherd Boy." 

24. Swiss Villages. 

25. The Mountains. 

'26. Recitation, "The Alpine Horn.'' 

27. Glaciers. 

28. The Chamois. 

29. Song, "The Alpine Hunter." 

30. Summer Pastures. 

31. Alpine Flowers. 

32. St. Bernard Hospice. 

33. Reciation, "Song of St. Bernard," 

34. Berne. 

35. Recitation, "Berne." 



112 teacher's supplement. 

36. The Government. 

37. Song, "National Song of Switzerland." 

38. Interlaken. 

39. Lauterbrunnen. 

40. Grindelwold. 

41. Lucerne. 

42. Recitation, "Monument at Lucerne." 

43. Pilatus. 

44. William Tell. 

45. Tableau, "William Tell." 

46. Song, "0 Thou My Country." 

47. Recitation, "William Tell. " 

48. People and Social Life. 

49. Song, "Stand Firm, O Fatherland." 

50. Zurich. 

51. Matterhorn. 

52. Song, "The Triumph of Liberty." 

SWITZERLAND. 

From a lofty Alpine summit look down upon this land, 
It lies there like a volume all written by God's hand; 
The mountains are the letters, as leaves the fields enroll, 
Saint Gothard is only an asterisk in this gigantic scroll. 

Know you what there is written? 0, see it beams so bright! 
Freedom stands there, ye princes! can ye read the page aright? 
No chancellor engrossed it, it is no parchment chart, 
And the red that burns in the signet is the blood of a people's 
heart. 

Behold the mighty mountain, —the Monk in the country height, 
Around his brow the eagle sweeps in its heavenward flight; 
His cowl is of rock, and the snow-crown becomes his temples 

well, 
His prayer-book the starry heavens, the universe his cell. 

When a monk appears, there surely can be no lack of preaching, 
In the thunder of the avalanche, in the cataract he is teaching; 
Freedom! that is his text- word; good sirs, } r ou do not smile? 
It is clear the monk is a heretic, — he must go into durance vile. 



POEMS. 11.3 

Hear how her song magnificent thrills in the beating heart 
Freedom! Freedom! she sings so that all our pulses start; 
By heavens ! with such a harmony never sang daughters of e 
And they who join in the chorus are surely of heavenly bi 

Graf Von Anersperg, Tr., J. 0. Sarge 
EXCELSIOR. 

The shades of night were falling fast, 
As through an Alpine village passed 
A youth, who bore, mid snow and ice, 
A banner with the strange device, 
Excelsior! 

His brow was sad ; his eye beneath 
Flashed like a falchion from its sheath, 
And like a silver clarion rung 
The accents of that unknown tongue, 
Excelsior! 

In happy homes he saw the light 
Of household fires gleam warm and bright; 
Above, the spectral glaciers shone, 
And from his lips escaped a groan, 
Excelsior! 

"Try not the pass!" the old man said; 
"Dark lowers the tempest overhead, 

The roaring torrent is deep and wide!" 

And loud that clarion voice replied, 
Excelsior! 

"0 stay, " the maiden said, "and rest 
Thy weary head upon this breast!" 
A tear stood in his bright blue eye, 
But still he answered, with a sigh, 
Excelsior! 

"Beware the pine-tree's withered branch! 
Beware the awful avalanche!" 
This was the peasant's last Good-night, 



114 TEACHERS SUPPLEMENT. 

A voice replied, far up the height. 
Excelsior! 

At break of da}', as heavenward 
The pious monks of Saint Bernard 
Uttered the oft-repeated prayer, 
A voice cried through the startled air, 
Excelsior! 

A traveller, by the faithful hound, 
Half buried in the snow was found, 
Still grasping in his hand of ice, 
That banner with the strange device, 
Excelsior! 

There in the twilight cold and gray, 
Lifeless, but beautiful, he lay, 
And from the sky, serene and far, 
A voice fell, like a falling star, 
Excelsior! 



Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. 



THE MOUNTAIN BOY. 

The shepherd of the Alps am I, 
The castles far beneath me lie; 
Here first the ruddy sunlight gleams, 
Here linger last the parting beams, 
The mountain boy am I! 

Here is the river's fountain head, 
I drink it from its stony bed; 
As forth it leaps with joyous shout, 
I seize it ere it gushes out. 
The mountain boy am 1! 

The mountain is my own domain; 
It calls its storms from sea and plain; 
From north to south they howl afar; 
My voice is heard amid their war. 
The mountain boy am I! 



POEMS. 115 

And when the tocsin sounds alarms, 
And mountain-bale-fires call to arms, 
Then I descend, I join my king, 
My sword I wave, my lay I sing. 
The mountain boy am I! 

The lightnings far beneath me lie ; 
High stand I here in clear blue sky; 
I know them, and to them I call ; 
In quiet leave my father's hall. 
The mountain boy am I ! * 

Johann Ludwig Uhland, TV., Anon. 

THE ALPINE HORN. 

In the wild chamois' track 

At the breaking of morn, 

With the hunter's pride 

O'er the mountain side, 

We are led by the sound of the Alpine horn. 

0, that voice to me is a sound of glee, 
Wherever my footsteps roam ; 
And I long to bound 
When I hear that sound 
Again to my mountain home. 

I have crossed the proud Alps 

I have sailed down the Rhone, 

And there is no spot like the simple cot 

And the hill and the valley I call my own. 

There the skies are bright 
And our hearts are light, 
Our bosoms without a fear; 
For our toil is play, 
And our sport, the fray 
With the mountain roe or deer. 

E. J, Lacer. 



116 teacher's supplement. 

WILLIAM TELL. 

Chains may subdue the feeble spirit, but thee, 

Tell, of the iron heart ! they could not tame; 

For thou wert of the mountains; they proclaim 

The everlasting creed of liberty. 

That creed is written on the untrampled snow, 

Thundered by torrents which no power can hold, 

Save that of G-od, when he sends forth his cold, 

And breathed by winds that through the free heaven blew, 

Thou, while thy prison walls were dark around, 

Didst meditate the lesson Nature taught, 

And to thy brief captivity was brought 

A vision of thy Switzerland unbound. 

The bitter cup they mingled strengthened thee 

For the great work to set thy country free. 

— William Callen Bryant. 
MONUMENT AT LUCERNE. 

When maddened France shook her King's palace floor ; 
Nobly, horoic Swiss, ye met your doom. 
Unflinching martyr to the oath he swore, 
Each steadfast soldier faced a certain tomb. 

Not for your own, but others' claims ye died: 
The steep, hard path of fealty called to tread, 
Threatened or soothed, ye never turned aside, 
But held right on, where fatal duty led! 

Reverent we stand beside the sculptured rock, 
Your cenotaph, — Helvetia's grateful stone; 
And mark in wonderment, the breathing block, 
Thorwaldsen's glorious troplry, — in your own 

Yon dying lion is your monument! 

Type of majestic suffering, the brave brute, 

Human almost, in mighty languishment 

Lies wounded, not subdued; and, proudly mule. 



POEMS. 1 17 

Seems as for some great cause resigned to die; 
And, hardly less than hero's parting breath, 
Speaks to the spirit, through the admiring eye, 
Of courage, faith, and honorable death. 

John Kenyon. 

LION OF LUCERNE. 

A thing of beauty we discern 

In the Lion of Lucerne 

A joy forever to all eyes 

Wrought from the native granite rock. 

Danish Thorwaldsen's masterpiece, 

Couchant, transfixed, without surcease 

Of pain, struggles against the shock; 

And while for breath he gasps, 

Lily of France he grasps 

With ardent pressure ere he dies. 

Sel. 

THE PRISONER OF CHILLON. 

My hair is gray, but not with years, 

Nor grew it white in a single night 

As men's have grown from sudden fears; 

My limb3 are bowed, though not with toil, 

But rusted with a vile repose, 

For they have been a dungeon's spoil, 

And mine has been the fate of those 

To whom the goodly earth and air 

Are banned and barred— forbidden fare; 

But this was for my father's faith 

I suffered chains and courted death; 

That father perished at the stake 

For tenets he would not forsake; 

And for the same his lineal race 

In darkness found a dwelling place; 

We were seven who now are one 

Six in youth and one in age. 



REFERENCE BOOKS. 

Swiss Life in Town and Country, by Story. 

Switzerland, in Story of the Nations Series. 

A Family Flight, Hale. 

Personally Conducted, Stockton. 

Hours of Exercise in the Alps, Tyndall. 

Letter from Switzerland, Prime. 

Life in the Swiss Highlands, Symonds. 

Three Vassar Girls in Switzerland, Champney. 

A Little Swiss Sojourn, Howells. 

Teutonic Switzerland, McCracken. 

Story of Switzerland, Mrs. A. Hug, and Mr. R. Stead. 

Switzerland and the Swiss, Byers. 

In Switzerland, Champney. 

The Alps from End to End, Conway. 

Playground of Europe, Stephens. 

Swiss Travel & Guide Books, Coolidge, Murray, Baedecker. 

PICTURES. 

STODDARD VIEWS (LARGE.) 

1. Panorama, Lucerne. 

2. Panorama, Geneva. 

3. Thun and Bernese Alps. 

4. Mer de Glace. 

5. Mont Blanc. 

6. St. Gotthard Pass and Bridge. 

PERRY PICTURES. 

1881 Yungfrau. 

1882 Matterhorn. 
18815 Mont Blanc. . 

1884 Mer de Glace. 

1885 Chapel of William Tell. 
188G Lion of Lucerne. 

1887 Castle of Chillon. 



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A Young' Man's 

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CONTENTS 

J5/>e Restless Years— Of, The Problem of a Pursuit in Life* 
t56e College Widow- Of, The Problem of an Insincere Friend. 
Having a Purpose— Or, The Problem of Concentrated Effort. 

(©*e Value of Healtn— Or, The Problem of Vital Force. 

Through Doubt to Fait H— Or. The Problem of a Trust 
Betrayed. 

Conduct Toward "Woman— Or, The Problem of Self Restraint* 

Doing As Others Do— Or, The Problem of Self Respect. 

«J5elf Control— Or, The Problem of Resisting Temptation*— 

jSfce Value ©/ An Education— Or, The Problem of Trained 
Powers. 

r A Good Name— Or, The Problem of a Clean Record. 

'Self Approval vs. Money— Or, The Problem of Fair Dealing. 

Choosing His Life WorK— Or, The Problem of One's Busi- 
ness Bent. 

A Woman Alter His Own Heart— Or, The Problem of a 
Happy Marriage. 

She Supreme Aim— Or, The Problem of the Right Standard. 

These are some of the problems of intense interest that the author brings into talks 
between two young men. The style is entertaining throughout. There is nothing 
dull or prosy anywhere. 

• 

By Lorenzo Carson McLeod. Cloth. 148 pages. Price, 50 cents. 

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Ground in the World, as Congress intended it 
should be. New hotels have been built and the Gov- 
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comfort than ever before. There is a gradual increase of visitors 
to the Park from year to year, and one can remain as long as 
one pleases, within the season limits. 

The hotel rates are $4.00 per day for seven days, $3.00 per day after 
that time, and stopovers are allowed without increased charge for trans- 
portation. The hotels and service are first-class in every particular and 
modern — steam heated, electri z lighted, etc.. — in appointments. 

This is the geyser land of the world; the trout fishing cannot be beaten 
anywhere, and the opportunities for genuine pleasure and profit in sight 
seeing are greater than are to be found elsewhere. 

For six cents I will send our "Wonderland 1902," which has a 
chapter on the Park; for 25 cents I will send "Yellowstone Na- 
tional Park," an illustrated and descriptive book relating entirely to 
the Park ; for 50 cents I will send "Wild Flowere from Yellow- 
stone,'" "a thing of beauty-and a joy forever." 



CHAS. S. FE,E, General Passenger Agent, 

Northern Pacific Railway, 

St. Paul, Minn. 



* 



